False hope and fictitious patents: evaluating the intellectual property of OxyContin

In this article I evaluate the socio-legal process of transforming a scientific R&D output into a market commodity via the prism of a public health crisis, namely, the opioid epidemic in the United States (US). My jurisdictional focus on the US is justified by its position at the epicentre of the opioid crisis, as well as being the most prominent patent and regulatory jurisdiction for the global pharmaceutical market. I undertake the first substantive examination of OxyContin from an IP law perspective, exploring its trajectory from conception to market, considering what lessons can be learned for IP theory and practice. Overall, I contribute a novel theoretical approach, examining patented pharmaceuticals as products of industrialised hope, while evaluating a practical case study of one such commodity, OxyContin. I conclude that the case of OxyContin highlights several problems inherent to the current system, including misaligned incentives, inadequate patent examination, and insufficient regulation.