Technological Innovation and Social Change

Innovation and Public Health
Non-Patent Models of Innovation

There has always been debate about the patent system, but this has been fuelled in recent years by its extension to new fields of technology including biotechnology, business methods and software - fields where incremental rather than discrete innovation is most common. Two particular developments stand out.

First, the sequencing of the human genome raised the issue of the extent to which innovation based on this fundamental data would be best promoted by making it freely available in the public domain (as practised by the publicly-funded Human Genome Project) or by patenting/selling data in private databases. A number of private companies initially based their business models on the latter approach.

Secondly, the development and subsequent successful commercial application of open source software has raised the issue of the viability of so-called “open and collaborative” models of innovation as complements or alternatives to innovation systems dependent on the intellectual property rights system.
Documents
- Finding Cures for Tropical Diseases: Is Open Source an Answer? | S. Maurer, A. Rai and A Sali | Paper presented at BIO 2004

- Patents and R&D Incentives: Comments on the Hubbard and Love Trade Framework for Financing Pharmaceutical R&D | By Joseph A. DiMasi and Henry G. Grabowsk | 25 June 2004
[pdf 63kb]
- A New Trade Framework for Global Healthcare R&D | T. Hubbard, J. Love | PLOS Biology 2:2, February 2004

- An Efficient Reward System for Pharmaceutical Innovation | By Aidan Hollis | 2004
[pdf 297kb]
- Commission on Macroeconomics and Health Paper No. WG2:8- Public Policies to Stimulate the Development of Vaccines and Drugs for the Neglected Diseases | By M. Kremer | 2001