University patenting and licensing practices in the United Kingdom during the COVID-19 pandemic

Keestra, Sarai; Rodgers, Florence; Osborne, Rhiannon; Wimmer, Sabrina

doi:10.1101/2021.09.20.21263777

Cited by 2 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Future research is needed to provide insights on how the MPP (and similar initiatives) negotiate specific access-oriented IP clauses and characterize the knowledge transfer models and how these frameworks are applied in practice. Similar studies were previously conducted in the field of early-stage research private-public partnerships [15,30,68]. Detailed qualitative information could inform the expansion of the MPP model and the creation of similar pools to include more priority health technologies, qualified generic manufacturers and additional countries based on their level of unmet medical need rather than income alone.…”

Section: Qualitative Studiesmentioning

confidence: 72%

Section: Collaborative Ip Trips Flexibilities and Health Governance D...mentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Medicines entering the market are a result of cumulative innovation and a collaborative effort between a network of public and private entities. The majority of new medicines result from publicly subsidized early-stage academic research, often additionally financed through governmental innovation grant programs such as the Horizon Europe or the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) [15,16]. However, final high-cost development and commercialization steps are often funded by pharmaceutical firms themselves after they buy the IP rights from research institutes.…”

Section: Barriers To the Effective Use Of Trips Flexibilitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the current system, to return their investment in development, companies charge a monopoly price for new patented medicines, which is often much higher than the cost of production [14,[24][25][26]. The method is based on the notion that other nations that were not involved in the R&D and commercialization activities (involuntary) contribute to its financing by buying patented medicines at high prices [14,15]. Nevertheless, in many high-income countries involved in R&D, such as the US and the EU, the public often pays twice for innovation: first through taxes and then through high medicine prices.…”

Section: Barriers To the Effective Use Of Trips Flexibilitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Lastly, most COVID-19 health technologies, such as MPP-licensed molnupiravir, were invented in US and UK universities, supported with taxpayer money [15,72,83]. Preliminary findings suggest minimal access-related measures were set in place by public institutes to promote fast and equitable access in LMICs [15]. More studies are needed to assess the extent of inclusion of access conditions (open innovation, knowledge transfer policies, end-product affordability, and the availability of clinical trial data) in COVID-19 related research grants and consortium contracts throughout the phases of clinical R&D.…”

Section: Collaborative Ip Trips Flexibilities and Health Governance D...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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TRIPS to Where? A Narrative Review of the Empirical Literature on Intellectual Property Licensing Models to Promote Global Diffusion of Essential Medicines

Mermelstein

Stevens

2021

Pharmaceutics

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Governed through the World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) since 1995, the current medical R&D system requires significant trade-offs between innovation and high monopoly prices for patented drugs that restrict patient access to medicines. Since its implementation, few amendments have been made to the original TRIPS agreement to allow low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to facilitate access by generic manufacturers through flexible provisions, such as compulsory licensing and parallel import. Although a useful policy tool in theory, the routine use of TRIPS flexibilities in LMICs in the procurement of new essential medicines (EMs) is regarded as a ‘last resort’ due to strong political response in high-income countries (HICs) and new trade agreements’ restrictions. In this context, access-oriented biomedical Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) have emerged. More recently, leading multilateral health organizations have recommended different types of intellectual property (IP) interventions, voluntary biomedical patent pools, as strategies to reduce prices and increase the diffusion of novel EMs in LMICs. Nevertheless, the recent Ebola and COVID-19 outbreaks highlight growing concerns regarding the use of TRIPS flexibilities and the limited success of voluntary mechanisms in promoting access to medicines in the Global South amidst health crises. This review aims at describing the state-of-the-art empirical research on IP-related options and voluntary mechanisms applied by emerging PPPs to guarantee timely and affordable access to EM in LMICs and reflect on both models as access paradigms. Some suggestions are put forward for future research paths on the basis of these analyses and in response to contemporary debates on waiving key IP rights on COVID-19 therapies, diagnostics, and vaccines.

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Section: Qualitative Studiesmentioning

confidence: 72%

Section: Collaborative Ip Trips Flexibilities and Health Governance D...mentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Barriers To the Effective Use Of Trips Flexibilitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Barriers To the Effective Use Of Trips Flexibilitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Collaborative Ip Trips Flexibilities and Health Governance D...mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

TRIPS to Where? A Narrative Review of the Empirical Literature on Intellectual Property Licensing Models to Promote Global Diffusion of Essential Medicines

Mermelstein

Stevens

2021

Pharmaceutics

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Who funded the research behind the Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine?

et al. 2021

Self Cite

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ObjectivesThe Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine (ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, Vaxzevira or Covishield) builds on two decades of research and development (R&D) into chimpanzee adenovirus-vectored vaccine (ChAdOx) technology at the University of Oxford. This study aimed to approximate the funding for the R&D of ChAdOx and the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine and to assess the transparency of funding reporting mechanisms.MethodsWe conducted a scoping review and publication history analysis of the principal investigators to reconstruct R&D funding the ChAdOx technology. We matched award numbers with publicly accessible grant databases. We filed freedom of information (FOI) requests to the University of Oxford for the disclosure of all grants for ChAdOx R&D.ResultsWe identified 100 peer-reviewed articles relevant to ChAdOx technology published between January 2002 and October 2020, extracting 577 mentions of funding bodies from acknowledgements. Government funders from overseas (including the European Union) were mentioned 158 times (27.4%), the UK government 147 (25.5%) and charitable funders 138 (23.9%). Grant award numbers were identified for 215 (37.3%) mentions; amounts were publicly available for 121 (21.0%). Based on the FOIs, until December 2019, the biggest funders of ChAdOx R&D were the European Commission (34.0%), Wellcome Trust (20.4%) and Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (17.5%). Since January 2020, the UK government contributed 95.5% of funding identified. The total identified R&D funding was £104 226 076 reported in the FOIs and £228 466 771 reconstructed from the literature search.ConclusionOur study approximates that public and charitable financing accounted for 97%–99% of identifiable funding for the ChAdOx vaccine technology research at the University of Oxford underlying the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine until autumn 2020. We encountered a lack of transparency in research funding reporting.

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University patenting and licensing practices in the United Kingdom during the COVID-19 pandemic

Cited by 2 publications

References 13 publications

TRIPS to Where? A Narrative Review of the Empirical Literature on Intellectual Property Licensing Models to Promote Global Diffusion of Essential Medicines

TRIPS to Where? A Narrative Review of the Empirical Literature on Intellectual Property Licensing Models to Promote Global Diffusion of Essential Medicines

Who funded the research behind the Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine?

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