A Cross-Country Index of Intellectual Property Rights in Pharmaceutical Innovations

Building on the seminal work of Ginarte and Park (1997), we develop an index of property rights in pharmaceutical innovations, the Pharmaceutical Intellectual Property Protection (PIPP) Index, for 154 countries spanning 1960 to 2005. It incorporates 5 types of property rights in pharmaceuticals; 6 statutory measures of enforcement; and adherence to 3 international agreements providing for the grant and enforcement of rights to foreigners. For both developing and developed countries, the PIPP Index starts at low levels in 1960, increases slowly through the early 1990s, and then sharply increases due to minimum standards set by the 1995 TRIPS Agreement.