A July 2026 commentary from Eira Research Fellow Kristina Acri challenges a recent analysis claiming that patents contribute to premature deaths among people with diabetes.
In Health Care Analysis, Acri argues that examining the costs of intellectual property without also considering its benefits provides an incomplete picture. In the case of insulin, IP has supported not only the discovery of the medication itself, but also decades of advances in production, formulation, and delivery that have transformed patient care.
"Accounting for all necessary variables would likely result in the opposite conclusion: that patents have saved the lives of diabetics in aggregate, pose no barrier to insulin access in the U.S. compared to Canada, and allow Americans to access the latest insulin technologies at a much greater rate than Canadians."