Saturday, August 15, 2009

Patent pools in global health

This year UNITAID announced plans to establish a patent pool for medicines "to provide patients in low and middle income countries with increased access to more appropriate and lower price medicines." A task force is working out the details. Glaxo-Smith Kline similarly announced support for a voluntary patent pool to encourage innovation in neglected diseases afflicting the world's poor.

These patent pools are a different breed than the more traditional ones based on cross-licensing structures and typically found in standard-driven industries -- like the MPEG LA patent pool that licenses portfolios of patents essential to downstream innovation using this technology for digital video compression. Traditional pools usually contain carefully selected technologies, have pre-negotiated licensing arrangements, and require significant resources to create and manage.

GSK's commitment to global health priorities is well-established (e.g. its partnership with Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV)). But for this new foray into the world of patent pools, it is still too early to tell whether there is likely to be any real impact on innovation in global health technologies. If the patents in these "pools" are offered under standardized and practical licensing terms, it would serve to reduce transaction costs and increase accessibility. Implementing standardized licensing language, though, is a real challenge.

If, instead, companies gather patents that are loosely technically related, post the information online, and simply note that they are open for negotiating licenses for uses in developing country applications, the PR benefits could be much greater than the real impact on innovation.

7 comments:

Danielgeoff said...

I would like thank you foe sharing the valuable blog with us. If you are looking for the swimming pool builders for construction, building & renovation then, you can get the profession swimming pool services in just a one click pool builders in San Antonio

Peter Thompson said...

Keep up the great work.

Maria Elena said...

Hi Sara,

Hope you will be fine and in good health. Before saying anything else, I would like to thank you for posting this great and helpful guide about health and care.

In life, health is the most important thing. If you are in good health, only then you can appreciate and enjoy your life.

I'm a food lover and always careful about eating. In my opinion, many health problems occur just because of eating unhealthy food.

Therefore, we all need to be conscious of what are we eating and drinking.

If our diet plan is consist of healthier organic food like moringa and maca then we can avoid the risk of many dangerous diseases.

Maca is a plant native to Peru. This plant contains all essential healthful compounds which are very good for both men and women.

Maca contains Vitamin C, Copper, Iron, and more, which is exceptionally good for boosting stamina, energy, endurance, and sexual relations.

You can buy organic maca root capsules from amazon easily. And using this for two to three months will help in boosting your overall health.

So we all should eat organic food and promote it as much as we can.

Anyhow, thank you for sharing again, carry on the great work.

Satta Matka Life said...

Thanks for sharing this post.It is very informative and helpful.

buy vigra

satta matka result

david said...

Very interesting and important cause, thanks for sharing.
Would love to share with my followers over at בריכות שחיה ביתיות

gagan said...

fastes result Kapil Matka Satta

naveen said...

I'm so glad and enjoyed your Post This is an awesome post thank you for sharing this interesting post to satta matka