Posts Tagged: "global health"

Intellectual Property Without Borders: How IP Protection for Low-Cost Medical Devices Improves Global Health

Because the production costs of these medical devices and pharmaceuticals are so high, millions of people around the world are unable to obtain necessary healthcare. For example, as of 2014, close to seventy percent of all cardiac pacemaker sales occurred in the United States and Europe, while several countries in Africa and Asia have absolutely no access to pacemakers. In order to respond to this problem, research scientists have begun developing low-cost medical technologies and using intellectual property rights to give people in developing countries access to adequate healthcare.

Isaac Rabicoff & Kenneth Matuszewski

February 10, 2017

Refocusing the TPP Debate – IP Rights are Critical to Improving Public Health

To listen to the critics, one would believe that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Trade Agreement marks the end of the world for global health, especially for the poor. They are, in a word, wrong. Admittedly, the TPP Agreement is extremely contentious, but the TPP Agreement contains important provisions regarding intellectual property (IP) rights, especially the standards of protection for pharmaceuticals. If the global community is to truly benefit from the promise of medical progress, we must stop the attack on the IP protections that incentivize innovation and turn our attention to the issues that genuinely inhibit access to medicines.

Kristina M. L. Acri née Lybecker

June 1, 2015

Leveraging Spin-Out Companies to Support Global Health

IDRI granted license rights to its world-class vaccine adjuvants to Immune Design Corporation (IDC), which was established in Seattle in 2008 with a focus on cancer, allergies and certain infectious diseases. The royalties and other funds received from IDC have helped to support IDRI’s programs, and IDC’s clinical safety data relating to the adjuvants have been vital in IDRI’s ability to accelerate the development of vaccines for tuberculosis and leishmaniasis, two diseases with an immense global health burden.

Erik Iverson

April 9, 2014

The Future of Global Health Depends on Strong IPRs

At first blush Dr. David Taylor’s claim that “continuing progress in the pharmaceutical and other health sciences will eliminate disease related mortality and disability in people aged under 75 by 2050” seems a bit unbelievable… The core of the analysis focuses on the extent to which intellectual property rights serve to foster innovation and improve global public health, both today and tomorrow. Taylor et al. recognize that without intellectual property rights private investment in expensive, risky and uncertain biopharmaceutical research and development projects would not take place. Acknowledging that the debate is more nuanced that a choice between firm profits or patient access, the authors argue that alternatives to the existing IPR regime would be unlikely to deliver the therapeutic advances that we enjoy under the current system.

Kristina M. L. Acri née Lybecker

February 16, 2014

Erik Iverson: Gates Foundation Interview Part 2

As a prelude to his presentation at BIO Mr. Iverson agreed to go on the record with me. Part 1 of my interview with Mr. Iverson was published last week, and what appears below is the final segment of our discussion. We pick up with discussion of crowd sourcing techniques to enhance innovation and the humanitarian work of the Gates Foundation, as well as the humanitarian work of all those engaged in the life sciences, which Iverson says is “all about helping people and saving lives.”

Gene Quinn

March 6, 2011

Interview: Erik Iverson of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Erik Iverson is Associate General Counsel with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, working exclusively with Foundation’s Global Health initiate. Mr. Iverson works with grantees in the development of intellectual property management plans, collaboration agreements and global access strategies with respect to the health solutions being funded by the Foundation. During our conversation Iverson and I talked about how the Gates Foundation seeks to incentivize innovators, as well as foster and respect intellectual property rights while at the same time engaging in what by its very nature is a humanitarian effort.

Gene Quinn

February 28, 2011