Research Policy (in press) doi:10.1016/j.respol.2010.04.006
Albert Guangzhou Hu
Foreign applications for Chinese patents have been growing by over 30% a year. This paper explores two hypotheses in explaining the foreign patenting surge in China: market covering and competitive threat. With foreign companies more deeply engaged with the Chinese economy, returns from protecting their intellectual property [...]
Research Policy (in press) doi:10.1016/j.respol.2010.04.006
Albert Guangzhou Hu
Foreign applications for Chinese patents have been growing by over 30% a year. This paper explores two hypotheses in explaining the foreign patenting surge in China: market covering and competitive threat. With foreign companies more deeply engaged with the Chinese economy, returns from protecting their intellectual property in China have increased. As domestic Chinese firms’ ability to imitate foreign technology gains strength and competition between foreign firms intensifies in the Chinese market, such competitive threat creates an urgency for protecting intellectual property. Using a database that comprises China’s State Intellectual Property Office patents and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office patents, I find strong support for the competitive threat hypothesis. The estimates imply that competition between foreign firms in China can account for 36% of the annual growth of foreign patenting in China.
Science Technology & Society, Vol. 15, No. 1, 77-111 (2010)
Jacques Gaillard
This article seeks to present the main characteristics of Research and Development (R&D) in developing countries using mainly available R&D statistics and to draw some implications for the Frascati Manual methodologies and its application. The main characteristics presented include trends [...]
Science Technology & Society, Vol. 15, No. 1, 77-111 (2010)
Jacques Gaillard
This article seeks to present the main characteristics of Research and Development (R&D) in developing countries using mainly available R&D statistics and to draw some implications for the Frascati Manual methodologies and its application. The main characteristics presented include trends and concentrations, relative share of Highly Qualified Skills (HQS) abroad, R&D expenditures, impact factor and the relative importance of international collaboration. R&D statistics in developing countries are still scarce, particularly in Africa. Furthermore, they may not fully explain the characteristics of R&D in developing countries, for example, the dynamics of R&D systems, R&D practices, informal behaviours and contributions, just to mention a few. It is, therefore, argued that beyond indicators, there is a need for complementary surveys to derive, inter alia, descriptors and narratives. In the concluding part, the particular characteristics of R&D in developing countries and the resulting consequences for R&D measurement are discussed, focusing on implications and recommendations, in view of a possible addition and/or future revision of the Frascati Manual.
Both Portugal and Spain narrowly escaped a sovereign debt crisis in their economies, but Greece did not. With the subsequent implementation of fiscal austerity programmes and the reduced health-care budget the question remains of what impact this will have on health status of the Greek population and in particular their pharmaceutical access initiatives. The story [...]
Both Portugal and Spain narrowly escaped a sovereign debt crisis in their economies, but Greece did not. With the subsequent implementation of fiscal austerity programmes and the reduced health-care budget the question remains of what impact this will have on health status of the Greek population and in particular their pharmaceutical access initiatives. The story below covers an unfolding crisis in the Greek pharmaceutical sector brought on by the the sovereign debt crisis and the withdrawal of key medicines by pharmaceutical companies.
Best regards, Joao
***
Another Danish pharmaceutical company is withdrawing products from Greece in protest at the government’s decision to cut the prices of medicines by 25%. The Leo Pharma company says it is suspending sales of two popular drugs because the price reductions will cause job losses across Europe. The Greek government is struggling with a debt crisis. It has condemned as unfair the action of Leo Pharma, and another Danish company, Novo Nordisk.
Source: BBC News
This piece by the Associated Press is an update of the unfolding story concerning the influence of pharmaceutical companies on World Health Organisation decisions concerning the swine flu. We are several months away from an expert panel report but in the interim speculation runs high and conspiracy theories abound. Whichever way things turn out in [...]
This piece by the Associated Press is an update of the unfolding story concerning the influence of pharmaceutical companies on World Health Organisation decisions concerning the swine flu. We are several months away from an expert panel report but in the interim speculation runs high and conspiracy theories abound. Whichever way things turn out in the future, it is quite certain that both public and private sector institutional buyers of vaccines will think twice before investing significant sums in stockpiling flu vaccines. While stockpiling can be a form of insurance for a likely future pandemics, it can also be a terribly expensive and futile exercise if pandemic guidelines are biased and lack transparency.
Best regards, Joao
*****
GENEVA — The head of the World Health Organization on Tuesday strongly rejected suggestions that her decisions about swine flu were influenced by advisers’ links to pharmaceutical companies. “At no time, not for one second, did commercial interests enter my decision-making,” WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said. She also dismissed claims the global health body had stirred unnecessary public fear over the pandemic. Her statement came in response to an article in the British Medical Journal that questioned the way WHO managed conflicts of interest among its scientific advisers and the transparency of its advice to governments. WHO’s handling of the outbreak is being reviewed by a 29-member expert panel that will report its findings next year. Critics say many of the panelists are also trusted WHO advisers and government employees who could end up whitewashing any failures.
Source: Associated Press
Below some positive news about the Gilead effort to ensure that their range of antiretroviral medicines remain affordable during tough economic times.
Best regards, Joao
****
Gilead Sciences Inc. said Friday it joined with statewide AIDS Drug Assistance Programs to help U.S. residents with HIV receive antiretroviral medicines. Foster City-based Gilead (NASAQ:GILD) said budget shortfalls [...]
Below some positive news about the Gilead effort to ensure that their range of antiretroviral medicines remain affordable during tough economic times.
Best regards, Joao
****
Gilead Sciences Inc. said Friday it joined with statewide AIDS Drug Assistance Programs to help U.S. residents with HIV receive antiretroviral medicines. Foster City-based Gilead (NASAQ:GILD) said budget shortfalls across the country are hitting AIDS Drug Assistance Programs, and the company is taking several actions, including additional discounts and extension of pricing freeze for HIV drugs Truvada, Viread and Emtriva through 2013. Gilead is also expanding eligibility for its patient assistance program and eliminating minimum payment requirements through its co-pay assistance program.
Source: Business Journal
That large multinational pharmaceutical companies would want to purchase Indian pharmaceutical companies is a worrying trend but not surprising. Western pharmaceutical firms are under considerable pressure to retain market share particularly as generic manufacturers continue expanding and many blockbuster pharmaceuticals come off patent. In a recent transaction, Abbott Laboratories purchased Piramal, India’s fourth-largest pharmaceutical company [...]
That large multinational pharmaceutical companies would want to purchase Indian pharmaceutical companies is a worrying trend but not surprising. Western pharmaceutical firms are under considerable pressure to retain market share particularly as generic manufacturers continue expanding and many blockbuster pharmaceuticals come off patent. In a recent transaction, Abbott Laboratories purchased Piramal, India’s fourth-largest pharmaceutical company for nine times their annual revenue – an unprecedented price in recent merger and acquisition history. The worrying element of this transaction is its implication for a pharmaceutical access in developing countries given that many governments and private markets in Africa and beyond depend on competitively priced Indian generic pharmaceuticals. Would the continuation of this purchasing trend in India spell the end of affordable pharmaceutical access in such countries? It may, but it somewhat depends on the ability of domestic and international regulatory agencies to ensure that anti-competitive behaviour does not prevent the monopolisation of the pharmaceutical industry.
Best regards, Joao
**************
INDIAN pharmaceutical companies that had grown in the past three decades to become a powerhouse of generic manufacturers have recently been feeling the heat of prolonged and difficult litigation in major Western markets. Finding solutions: In manufacturing, big pharma companies are already striking closer relationships with Indian generics to service global markets under marketing alliances Western pharmaceutical giants have also tried to protect their markets with other restrictive practices. Now it seems that these Western companies have found another way to fight off the Indian threat: They have persuaded the Indians to take the easier and profitable route of selling out to pharma giants. The latest case is the sale of Piramal’s 18.2 billion rupee (S$546 million) formulations business with 350 branded generics to Abbot Laboratories for 170 billion rupees. This is at a premium to its present market capitalisation of 108 billion rupees and the sale is valued at a high nine times annual revenue.
Source: Business Times
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