The answer appears to be yes according to an NBER working paper by Galasso and Luo:
We find that, on average, laws that limit the liability exposure of healthcare providers are associated with a significant reduction in medical device patenting and that the effect is predominantly driven by innovators located in the states passing the reforms. Tort laws have the strongest impact in medical fields in which the probability of facing a malpractice claim is the largest, and they do not seem to affect the amount of new technologies of the highest and lowest quality. Our results underscore the importance of considering dynamic effects in the economic analysis of tort laws.
Very interesting. Read the full paper here.
- Galasso, Alberto, and Hong Luo. Tort Reform and Innovation. No. w22712. National Bureau of Economic Research, 2016.