Research and reports

Slideshow: Innovation and the COVID-19 Response

On 26 November 2021 the new research report about the role that intellectual property played in the development, manufacturing, and global distribution of COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics was launched in Geneva. The report was co-authored by Innovation Council’s very own Jennifer Brant, and Prof. Mark Schultz.

The report is available here, along with a slideshow of the research project.

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Unprecedented – The Rapid Innovation Response to COVID-19 and the Role of Intellectual Property

Jennifer Brant, Director of Innovation Council, will present a recent research report that she co-authored about the constructive role played by IP rights in the rapid development and manufacturing of COVID-19 solutions. Jetane Charsley, Head of NIPMO, will host the event and lead a moderated discussion.

Tuesday, May 10 / 01:00 PM Johannesburg (CET)

Click here to register for this event.

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Slideshow: Measuring the Gender Gap in Innovation

Monitoring the share of women inventing, creating, and innovating is essential to develop appropriate policy responses to the innovation-related gender participation gap. Yet, several national and international innovation and IP data sources lack any type of gender breakdown.

This slideshow reviews the different ways to get innovation and IP data with gender breakdown.

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UNCTAD’s Global Trade Update

UNCTAD’s Global Trade Update was published on 17 February 2022. It shows that in 2021 global trade growth remained strong, as its value continued to increase through each quarter of 2021. Trade growth was not only limited to goods, as trades in services also grew substantially through 2021, to finally reach pre-pandemic levels during Q4 2021.

Read the full report.

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Center for Global Development series on the EU-Africa Summit

On February 17th, the long-awaited summit between the African Union (AU) and the European Union (EU), delayed since 2020, finally began. But in the time since the first event was scheduled, the world was ravaged by a pandemic that is estimated to have stalled a decade of continuous growth and human capital improvement on the African continent.

The Center for Global Development prepared an excellent series on the EU-Africa Summit consisting of mini reports by CGD experts about the various joint priorities set out by the AU and the EU. The series offers compelling analysis and commentary on the actions needed in order for a meaningful reconstruction of the relationship between the two continents to materialize. 

Find the series here.

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Last Chance to Apply: Call for Applications for 2022-2023 Thomas Edison Innovation Law and Policy Fellowships

The Center for Intellectual Property x Innovation Policy (C-IP2) at George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School invites applications for a non-resident fellowship program designed to develop rigorous scholarship on intellectual property (IP), creativity, and innovation law and policy. The Thomas Edison Innovation Law and Policy Fellowship promotes excellent academic research about IP and related rights in the innovative and creative communities. The program consists of a series of three (3) invitation-only roundtables over the course of a year, which fellows are required to attend. Over the course of these meetings, Edison Fellows work under the guidance of distinguished senior commentators, and with each other, to turn paper ideas into polished manuscripts publishable in law reviews or other academic journals.

Deadline for submissions: 24 November 2021, 05pm EST.

Read the full story and apply here.

 

 

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Biotechnology applications poised for multi-sector growth across APAC

Biotechnology has fundamental applications across multiple sectors that are critical to the growth of economies around the Asia Pacific (APAC) region. The key factors driving this growth include favourable government initiatives, plummeting sequencing prices, growing market demand for synthetic biology, and increasing R&D investments by the public and private sectors. Asia Pacific’s biotech market is expected to expand even faster in the future, with a CAGR of 16.8% from now until 2028. This speed can be attributed to improvements in healthcare infrastructure, supportive government policies, clinical trial services, and epidemiological factors.

Read the full story.

 

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Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine: A global assessment of demand and supply balance

Over the past decade, several countries–representing all regions, income groups, and procurement methods—have been unable to secure sufficient BCG vaccine supply. While the frequency of stock-outs has remained rather stable, their duration increased in 2014–2015 due to manufacturing issues, attracting the attention of national, regional and global immunization stakeholders. This prompted an in-depth analysis of supply and demand dynamics which aimed to characterize supply risks. This analysis is unique, as it provides a global picture where previous analyses have focused only on a portion of the market that procures vaccines through UN entities. Through a literature review, supplier interviews, and the appraisal of shortages, stock-outs, and historical procurement data, as well as through demand forecasting, this analysis shows an important increase in global capacity in 2017: supply is sufficient to meet forecasted BCG vaccine demand and possibly buffer market shocks. Nevertheless, risks remain, mainly due to supply concentration, limited investment in production process improvements, and inflexibility of demand.

Read the full story.

 

 

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After a gene from algae was added to his eye, a blind man can perceive objects

Botond Roska, professor at the University of Basel, led the research for a gene therapy to add light-sensing molecules to a patient’s retina, which has improved the patient’s sight significantly. In the journal Nature Medicine, the authors describe how their patient lost his vision after being diagnosed 40 years ago with retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative disease that destroys photoreceptors (the light-sensing cells in the retina). The doctors employed gene therapy to add a light-sensing molecule to one of the man’s eyes. The gene they added, called chrimson, comes from a single-celled algae species that is able to sense sunlight and move toward it. The idea behind adding the gene, says Roska, is to engineer retina cells called ganglions so that they become able to respond to light, sending visual signals to the brain.

Read the full story.

 

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