IP Management

Why Voluntary Licensing is Best for Increasing Access to Medicines

The Geneva Network recently published analysis about the benefits from voluntarily licensing in the health space. The author argues that voluntary licensing was crucial during COVID-19, aiding the quick and large scale production of vaccines and therapeutics. Overall, it is noted that voluntary licensing can enable long term knowledge transfer, cooperation between companies, and increased flexibility and speed in the innovation process.

Click here to read the full story.

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EPO Launches Clean-Energy Platform to Support Researchers

Ahead of the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27), the EPO launched a new Clean Energy platform designed to support researchers and decision-makers involved in the race for clean-energy technologies that contribute to the UN SDGs.

The platform provides an initial selection of some 60 ready-made smart patent information searches to help scientists, engineers and decision-makers find and build upon existing green tech solutions with greater ease.

Click here to read more.

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AI and the Bio-Pharmaceutical Sector

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) recently hosted discussions about the relationship between artificial intelligence (AI) and intellectual property (IP). Mr. Corey Salsberg, a globally recognized attorney in the fields of IP and innovation law and policy, and Vice President and Global Head of IP Affairs for Novartis, was invited to take part in the second panel featuring Stories from Innovators – A Real Life Business View on AI Innovation. This note is based on his remarks, which provide examples from Novartis’ R&D and other activities to illustrate how AI can be applied to enhance bio-pharma innovation, along with the related IP implications.

Click here to read more.

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11th Asia Regulatory Conference

The 11th Asia Regulatory Conference was recently held from 17-21 October 2022 by the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) and the Singapore Association of Pharmaceutical Industries (SAPI). The conference, which took the form of short topic specific webinars, covered ways in which the regulatory landscape could be improved, and what this means for patients, regulators, and industry. Some topics that were covered included regulatory agilities and why this is important to patients, harmonization of regulatory approval, the changing regulatory landscape of Biotherapeutics and Advanced Therapy Medical Products, the effectiveness of the ICH and the importance of delivery the same quality of regulatory standard to patients everywhere. There was a wide range of speakers lending their view including representatives from both AstraZeneca who spoke on the lessons learned throughout COVID-19 in regard to regulatory approval and Pfizer who spoke on their experience with Post Approval Change Management
Protocol (PACMP).

Click here to watch the full video. The AstraZeneca talk begins at 35:52.

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Building Greater Resilience in Vaccine Manufacturing – McKinsey & Company

Preparing for the next pandemic is a priority for many national public-health leaders and requires them to lay the groundwork to mount an effective vaccine response.

Decision makers could set the stage for vaccine resilience by defining what their countries and regions need; assessing the local capacity to scale production of vaccine doses; identifying gaps and weaknesses in their national and regional vaccine value chains.

Read the full article here.

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Seminar hosted by the Geneva Network about Availability of COVID Solutions

On 5 October 2022, the Geneva Network organized a panel about the possible future implications of expanding the scope of the TRIPS waiver, in particular in relation to innovation and availability of diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines for health crises. Innovation Council’s Executive Director Jennifer Brant took part in this panel to share information about how bio-manufacturing infrastructure can be extended, and what policy actions governments can take to accelerate the process. She expressed the view that the June 2022 TRIPS waiver should be tested, and that evidence should be tabled as to the need to expand the waiver’s scope to cover additional categories of COVID health products, before WTO Members take further action.

Click here to watch the virtual meeting.

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Geneva Network Analysis of the TRIPS Waiver

In the coming months WTO Members will continue to discuss whether to modify the TRIPS waiver that was agreed in June 2022 to include COVID therapeutics and diagnostics. Geneva Network has prepared a policy brief that explains why it could be counterproductive to expand the scope of the waiver in this way. The brief is authored by Philip Stevens of the Geneva Network and Prof. Mark Schultz, Director of the Intellectual Property and Technology Law Program at the University of Akron School of Law.

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Why the United States urgently needs patent subject-matter eligibility reform

The law is in a state of disarray that has led to inconsistent case decisions, deep uncertainty in the innovative, investment and legal communities, and unpredictable outcomes in prosecution and litigation. David Kappos, Paul Michel, Corey Salsberg and Matthew Dowd argue that the United States’ legislators must act to ensure the country maintains its long-standing competitive edge in the global innovation race.

Click here to read the full story.

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How Qualcomm Is Helping to Foster A More Inclusive Patent Ecosystem For All Inventors

The story of engineering breakthroughs by Qualcomm Incorporated and its affiliated companies (Qualcomm) – and the wireless revolution they’ve made possible – is a case study for how the U.S. patent system helps inventors get their ideas into the marketplace while funding future risk-taking and innovation.

They’ve recently partnered with Invent Together on the launch of The Inventors Patent Academy, or TIPA, an online learning platform aimed at guiding inventors through the benefits of patenting and the process of obtaining a patent — particularly potential inventors with backgrounds that provide them little or no exposure to the world of intellectual property.

Click here to read more.

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