Leveraging Research Failures to Accelerate Pharmaceutical Innovation
Panel
Panel 8: Innovation in Pharmaceutical R&D
Moderator
Brett Taylor, Assistant Professor, University of the Pacific, Gladys L. Benerd School of Education
Description
Research failures are one of the most significant costs associated with the estimated USD$2.6 billion price tag and 12 year timeframe to bring a drug from discovery to market. The European Commission estimates that USD$20 billion are spent every year to develop innovations that have already been developed elsewhere, highlighting the exorbitant cost of duplication. The competitive nature of industries highly dependent on research and innovation is such that the voluntary sharing of information is not particularly forthcoming despite the highly publicized advantages of open science and open innovation. However, sharing research failures may be perceived as less competitively threatening as it is considered ‘useless’ to the party owning it, but highly valuable to the competition. A legally supported framework that recognizes and protects contributions to an innovation by way of research failures that could translate into a revenue-sharing model may lead to more openness and overall acceleration in drug discovery and development.
Location
Pacific McGeorge School of Law, Lecture Hall, 3200 Fifth Ave., Sacramento, CA
Leveraging Research Failures to Accelerate Pharmaceutical Innovation
Pacific McGeorge School of Law, Lecture Hall, 3200 Fifth Ave., Sacramento, CA
Research failures are one of the most significant costs associated with the estimated USD$2.6 billion price tag and 12 year timeframe to bring a drug from discovery to market. The European Commission estimates that USD$20 billion are spent every year to develop innovations that have already been developed elsewhere, highlighting the exorbitant cost of duplication. The competitive nature of industries highly dependent on research and innovation is such that the voluntary sharing of information is not particularly forthcoming despite the highly publicized advantages of open science and open innovation. However, sharing research failures may be perceived as less competitively threatening as it is considered ‘useless’ to the party owning it, but highly valuable to the competition. A legally supported framework that recognizes and protects contributions to an innovation by way of research failures that could translate into a revenue-sharing model may lead to more openness and overall acceleration in drug discovery and development.
Speaker Bio
Helen Yu is an Assistant Professor and Associate Director of the Center for Advanced Studies in Biomedical Innovation Law (CeBIL) at the University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Law. Her research focus is in exploring how existing intellectual property and policy tools can be leveraged to improve and proactively support the transformation of biomedical research into socially and economically beneficial outcomes. In this context, she adopts an interdisciplinary approach to studying how technology, open innovation, business models, public private partnerships, and the law can inform the development of an innovation platform that is responsive and reflective to the interests of stakeholders. Helen holds a degree in neuroscience from the University of British Columbia, a Juris Doctor from Queen’s University, and practiced as an intellectual property lawyer for 8 years before obtaining her PhD at the University of Copenhagen. Helen is a Registered Patent and Trademark Agent with extensive European and North American experience.