Financial Times
Sir,
Andrew Jack's article ("Malta employs patent quirk to cash in on copycat drugs", September 19) is substantially correct and shows how smallness can be turned into an advantage by exploiting uncared for corners in an otherwise fiercely competitive world. But history needs to be respected.
It is less than 500 years (rather than the 1,000 indicated by Mr Jack) since the Knights Hospitaller established, grudgingly, their base in Malta in 1530 after being kicked out of Jerusalem first and Rhodes later. They stayed until 1798 and thankfully left a legacy of architecture that is a gem on both sides of the Valletta harbour and in Valletta itself.
When the Knights came here they thought it was a temporary home until something better could be found but in the end they stayed 268 years by which time their military function had lost its purpose. Maybe investors who choose Malta to exploit the patent quirk available for a short-time window will in due course, like the Knights, find other reasons to stay much longer.
Sir,
Andrew Jack's article ("Malta employs patent quirk to cash in on copycat drugs", September 19) is substantially correct and shows how smallness can be turned into an advantage by exploiting uncared for corners in an otherwise fiercely competitive world. But history needs to be respected. It is less than 500 years (rather than the 1,000 indicated by Mr Jack) since the Knights Hospitaller established, grudgingly, their base in Malta in 1530 after being kicked out of Jerusalem first and Rhodes later. They stayed until 1798 and thankfully left a legacy of architecture that is a gem on both sides of the Valletta harbour and in Valletta itself.
When the Knights came here they thought it was a temporary home until something better could be found but in the end they stayed 268 years by which time their military function had lost its purpose. Maybe investors who choose Malta to exploit the patent quirk available for a short-time window will in due course, like the Knights, find other reasons to stay much longer.
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