Home | Databases | WorldLII | Search | Feedback Edited Legal Collections Data

Rozek, Richard P.; Dickensheets, Bridget A. --- "Encouraging Cooperation Among the Academic, Government and Private Sectors in US Biomedical R & D" [2006] ELECD 327; in Pugatch, Perez Meir (ed), "The Intellectual Property Debate" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006)

Book Title: The Intellectual Property Debate

Editor(s): Pugatch, Perez Meir

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845420383

Section: Chapter 7

Section Title: Encouraging Cooperation Among the Academic, Government and Private Sectors in US Biomedical R & D

Author(s): Rozek, Richard P.; Dickensheets, Bridget A.

Number of pages: 21

Extract:

7. Encouraging cooperation among the
academic, government and private
sectors in US biomedical R&D
Richard P. Rozek and Bridget A. Dickensheets*

I. INTRODUCTION

Engaging in biomedical research and development (R&D) is risky since it
requires substantial investments in both spending and time (over $800
million and 12 to 15 years to develop a pharmaceutical product) with no
guarantee of a successful outcome. Many R&D projects fail to yield safe
and effective products. Further, the social returns from the investments in
biomedical R&D often exceed the private returns.1 As a result, the market
system alone cannot solve the problem of allocating the optimal amount of
resources to biomedical R&D. To address the market failure, an R&D
infrastructure has evolved that combines the academic, government and
private sectors in the search for solutions to health care problems that affect
people throughout the world. Each sector contributes to the biomedical
R&D process. The government provides the legal framework for encour-
aging R&D. In the US, the federal government, primarily through the
National Institutes of Health (NIH), also conducts basic and applied R&D
and provides funds to academic institutions and private companies to carry
out biomedical R&D projects. Scientists at academic institutions conduct
R&D without regard to immediate commercial potential and train students
to meet future manpower needs in the scientific community. Companies in
the private sector pursue a broad range of R&D projects; identify com-
mercially promising technologies; conduct large- ...