Healthy Skepticism Library item: 14537

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

So AD, Sampat BN, Rai AK, Cook-Deegan R, Reichman JH, Weissman R, Kapczynski A.
Is Bayh-Dole Good for Developing Countries? Lessons from the US Experience.
PLoS Biol. 2008 Oct 28; 6:(10):e262
http://biology.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/j

Abstract:

Recently, countries from China and Brazil to Malaysia and South Africa
have passed laws promoting the patenting of publicly funded research
[1,2], and a similar proposal is under legislative consideration in
India [3]. These initiatives are modeled in part on the United States
Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 [4]. Bayh-Dole (BD) encouraged American
universities to acquire patents on inventions resulting from
government-funded research and to issue exclusive licenses to private
firms [5,6], on the assumption that exclusive licensing creates
incentives to commercialize these inventions. A broader hope of BD, and
the initiatives emulating it, was that patenting and licensing of public
sector research would spur science-based economic growth as well as
national competitiveness [6,7]. And while it was not an explicit goal of
BD, some of the emulation initiatives also aim to generate revenues for
public sector research institutions [8].

We believe government-supported research should be managed in the public
interest. We also believe that some of the claims favoring BD-type
initiatives overstate the Act’s contributions to growth in US
innovation. Important concerns and safeguards-learned from nearly 30
years of experience in the US-have been largely overlooked. Furthermore,
both patent law and science have changed considerably since BD was
adopted in 1980 [9,10]. Other countries seeking to emulate that
legislation need to consider this new context.