Publication: Biopatente und der Mythos des 'Patents auf Leben'. (The Myth of a 'Patent on Life' and Bio-patenting. With English summary.)
No Thumbnail Available
Published
2010
ISSN
Date
2012-03-30
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Patents on biotechnological inventions are suspected to create "patents on life". We shed light on arguments which have often been used in the media campaigns of NGOs. While we acknowledge the role of these organisations as seldom critical voices, we conclude that their arguments, at best, only partly reflect the regulatory frame. Undermining biotechnological patents in the absence of objective reasoning weakens the core of an innovative and research driven industry.
Link to Data Set
Digital Object Identifier
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication India's Journey Toward an Effective Patent System(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-08)The decade following India's accession to the World Trade Organization's Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property ushered in numerous changes to the country's patent system, culminating in a series of amendments in 2005. But a functioning patent system is more than a statute. This paper discusses the steps that India must still take to develop an effective, functioning patent system capable of attracting foreign direct investment, motivating domestic innovation and education, and filtering its benefits to all elements of Indian society, including the poor and the possessors of traditional knowledge. The analysis combines data studies of historical and recent patenting activity in India and by Indians, interviews with Indian government officials, intellectual property attorneys, industrialists, and researchers, and lessons gleaned from patent systems abroad. It identifies critical needs and concrete steps to meet them. Improving public awareness of the revenue-generating potential of patents will enhance incentives for the participation of individuals and small and medium enterprises in the patent system. Formalizing guidelines for patents derived through government research funds-coupled with needed changes in institutional governance-will enhance prospects for technology transfer from laboratories to commercial markets. Compensation schemes for traditional knowledge will extend the benefits of intellectual property rights to the poorest members of society. This paper's recommendations would help India achieve both a fully functioning patent system and a mechanism for ensuring that poor people living traditional lifestyles receive their share of the social gains that a working innovation system can confer.Publication Pharmaceutical Patents and Prices : A Preliminary Empirical Assessment Using Data from India(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-05)The enforcement of stringent intellectual property rights in the pharmaceutical sector of developing countries generates considerable controversy, due to both the extensive research investment and the public policy importance of this sector. This paper explores the likely effects of enforcing product patents on prices and utilization of drugs in the Central Nervous System market in India. The Central Nervous System segment is the second largest therapeutic category in terms of retail sales in the world and is one of the fastest growing segments in India. Using information on product patents granted by the government and panel data on pharmaceutical prices and utilization from 2003-2008, the paper finds limited evidence of overall price increase following the introduction of product patents. However, there appear to be heterogeneous effects on prices by the type of product patent granted on drugs, implying the need for a careful examination of the product patent portfolio.Publication Life Sciences Capital Fund : Malaysia Case Study(Washington, DC, 2014)The Malaysian Life Sciences Capital Fund (MLSCF) is a venture capital fund based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. MLSCF has succeeded in transferring biotechnologies from more-developed to less developed countries. The specific technologies of interest to the fund have the potential to significantly improve farm productivity. Two organizations, one public and the other private, co-manage MLSCF. They are the Malaysian Technology Development Corporation (MTDC), a government organization, and Burrill and Company, a San Francisco-based merchant bank. The fund manages $150 million in committed capital. The concept underlying the fund is to pursue science without borders through a process of open innovation. Open innovation greatly reduces the transaction costs of technology transfer.Publication How Stronger Patent Protection in India Might Affect the Behavior of Transnational Pharmaceutical Industries(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2000-05)To address questions about how stronger patent rights will affect India's pharmaceutical industry, the author simulates the effects of introducing such protection - as required by the World trade Organization Agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) - on market structure and static consumer welfare. (India must amend its current patent regime by 2005 and establish a transitional regime in the meanwhile.) The mode the author uses accounts for the complex demand structure for pharmaceutical goods. Consumers can choose among various drugs available to treat a specific disease. And for each drug, they have a choice among various differentiated brands. The author calibrates the model for two groups of drugs - quinolonnes and synthetic hypotensives - using 1992 brad-level data. In both groups, a subset of all available drugs was patent-protected in Western Europe but no India, where Indian manufacturers freely imitated them. The simulation analysis asks how the market structure for the two groups of drugs would have looked if India had granted patents for drugs. It does not take account of the fact that stronger patent protection will not apply to existing drugs and that the Indian government might be able to restrain high drug prices by imposing price controls or granting compulsory licenses. Still, the author concludes that if future drug discoveries are mainly new varieties of already existing therapeutic treatments, the effect of stronger patent protection is likely to be small, If newly discovered drugs are medicinal breakthroughs, however, prices may rise significantly above competitive levels and static welfare losses may be large. If demand is highly price-elastic, as is likely in India, profits for transnational corporations are likely to be small, but if private health insurance is permitted in India, reducing the price-sensitivity of demand, patent-holders' profits could increase substantially. In light of the fact that the TRIPS Agreement strengthens patent rights in most developing countries, pharmaceutical companies may do more research on, for example, tropical diseases.Publication Secondary School Madrasas in Bangladesh : Incidence, Quality, and Implications for Reform(Washington, DC, 2010-03)This report presents findings from the first ever comprehensive survey to document the incidence and quality of secondary madrasas in Bangladesh. Analysis also draws upon other publicly available administrative and household level datasets. Currently the authors have very little information on school quality in general due to no national learning assessment system and because schools from different streams are tested under different Boards. Thus it is always important to examine the quality of aided madrasas relative to aided secular schools. The report highlights new challenges: while gender equality in access has been achieved in both schools and madrasas, girls remain systematically disadvantaged in terms of learning outcomes. The female learning penalty remain is particularly pronounced in case of madrasas. Overall, the quality of mathematics and English learning is low in madrasas, but performance of students of mainstream schools is also unsatisfactory average quality remains poor across the range of rural institutions. Overall, this report represents an empirically grounded investigation into the hitherto undocumented changes Bangladesh has witnessed in the secondary madrasa school sector in the past two decades. Based on their analysis, the authors suggest a range of policy initiatives that cover the entire secondary education sector, not just the madarasa education. Given the wealth of data collected on secondary institutions and households during the survey, this report only represents the first of a series of rigorous empirical research and analysis which will be undertaken. It is hoped that the report will provide an impetus towards an evidence-based policy debate on madrasas and other critical issues in the education sector.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
No results found.