Patents v Open Innovation: Incentivising ‘Medicines for the Many’

Speakers:

• Dr Galit Gonen-Cohen, Head of Intellectual Property Law at Novartis, former VP and General Counsel, Europe, Teva
• Professor Matthew Todd, Professor of Drug Discovery at UCL School of Pharmacy
• Professor Adrian Towse, Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics and Director Emeritus of the Office of Health Economics

 
Chair: The Hon. Mr Justice Birss

About this event

How do we devise a suitable incentive scheme for the development of new pharmaceuticals and innovative health treatments? Traditionally, this has been the role of the patent system, but increasingly, claims are made that this focusses R&D efforts in the direction of greatest profits, rather than towards those areas of greatest public need. Patents – it is said – encourage the antithesis of open, collaborative research and render many new drugs unaffordable despite rising patient need.
 
While some advocate patent pools to ensure access to essential medicines or proffer prizes as a partial solution, others propose a Health Impact Fund. The topic looks likely to be a live issue in the forthcoming election. In September, UK Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn asserted  “We will tell the drugs companies that if they want public research funding, then they will have to make their drugs affordable for all.” Launching its ‘Medicines for the Many’ policy document, the party pledges to ‘break patents’ by dusting off compulsory licensing provisions and making the very latest drugs available on the NHS via a public-owned generics company. Meanwhile, a recent report by the NHS Confederation suggests that the real price of Boris Johnson’s much touted post-Brexit trade deal with the USA is £billions on nation’s drugs bill.
 
In its annual Innovation Lecture, UCL’s Institute of Brand and Innovation Law has brought together a distinguished panel to identify the problems of the current patent-based system and to investigate whether open innovation is the potential solution.

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