"Between 1810 and 1939, real per capita spending on patent medicines grew by a factor of 114; real per capita GDP by a factor of 5. The long-term growth and survival this industry is puzzling when juxtaposed with standard historical accounts, which typically portray patent medicines as quack...

Good intentions are no substitute for sound economic regulation. Using the ‘in-vestment ladder’ as the stick and "access holidays" as the carrot is hardly an ef-fective way to generate competition. On the contrary, this approach creates a regulatory spiral. What regulators plead for today is...