On the issue of Intellectual Property, its important to distinguish between intellectual property rights in general, and patents/copyrights in the TRIPS/TRIPS+ regimes as a specific institutionalization of those rights.

Two arguments can be made against the economists support. First, creativity does occur in the absence of property rights. In fact, the US did not accept foreign patents for several years, and Switzerland only accepted them in the 70s. So property rights are good so long as they are local, but its ok to imitate (India’s pharma industry).

Second, one can argue that patents go much further than general property rights, much to the detriment of innovation. Instead, they create an incentive not for creativity but for trying to preserve those exclusive rights. Again, the pharmaceutical industry is an excellent though somewhat extreme example.

On the specific issue of pharma patents see my previous article:
The Failure of Pharma R&D, or the more general healthcare category.