Posts Tagged: "National Institutes of Health"

Commenters on Bayh-Dole Rule Object to Mention of ‘Pricing’ in March-In Provision

Two organizations with which I work have filed comments with NIST on its Bayh-Dole regulatory proposals. The National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST, approaches completion of its two-and-a-half-year effort known as the Return on Investment Initiative, as the regulatory revision stage nears its close. NIST has conducted a commendable process and proposed mostly constructive or reasonable updating to rules associated with the Bayh-Dole Act. But one proposal puts at risk the continued success of the storied law for democratizing technology transfer and commercializing inventions coming from federally sponsored research. That is, this law facilitates bringing to practical use inventions that otherwise would sit on shelves.

A Swing (and a Miss) at NIH Tech Transfer

How many people or organizations could undergo an exhaustive investigation into everything they’ve done over the past 30 years and emerge unscathed? That’s what just happened to the technology transfer operations at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), with the spotlight primarily focused on the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Of course, an exercise like this has to find something, so the report that resulted from this exercise is titled “NIH Should Publicly Report More Information about the Licensing of Its Intellectual Property”. After extensive digging, all it uncovered are some pretty small potatoes.

A Misguided Op-Ed, a Key Report, and Why Holding the U.S. Lead in the Life Sciences is More Important Than Ever

Our current experiences with COVID-19 in the United States, together with headlines warning of major efforts by the Chinese and Russian governments to hack corporate, academic and federal laboratories to steal information on pending therapies, underline the importance of maintaining the U.S. lead in the life sciences. It’s not just our health at risk—it’s also our security. We’ve just had a taste of what it’s like depending on China for medicines and protective gear. We also face an internal threat posed by “drug populists” calling for arbitrary government price controls while blaming patents for costs and blocking innovation. Ironically, a perfect example of this school of thought appeared in the  New York Daily News the same day as an important new report issued from the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF). Titled “Ensuring U.S. Biomedical Competitiveness”,  the report is a treasure trove of critically needed information.

Stand Up to the Anti-Patent COVID-19 Narrative

It may seem odd, as unprecedented public/private sector R&D alliances work to discover and develop therapies to counter COVID-19, that some are trying to punish the companies trying to get us out of this mess. For example, House “Progressive” leaders unveiled the  “three protections”  they will try to insert in the next Congressional aid package, beginning with this: “NO EXCLUSIVITY: Pharmaceutical manufacturers should not be granted exclusivity for any COVID-19 vaccine, drug, or other therapeutic-whether it has been developed with U.S. taxpayer dollars and publicly funded, or not.” Consider the last phrase. They would take away rights to technologies developed entirely with private funding without evidence of any public need for doing so.

Everything Depends on Coronavirus R&D Partnerships—Don’t Let the Critics Wreck Them

The world is teetering on the brink of a public health and economic catastrophe, depending on emergency partnerships between our public and private sectors to develop a successful treatment for the coronavirus. If there was ever a time to be thankful that we have policies in place making that possible, it’s now. But there are those who want to use this crisis to return to the failed policies of the past. Here’s the bottom line: the Bayh-Dole Act works. It allows the private sector to collaborate with universities and federal laboratories, like the National Institutes of Health, knowing that intellectual property they bring into such partnerships will be protected. It also allows academic institutions and federal labs to determine what type of license is best suited to promptly commercialize their inventions.