Mark Anderson (University College London), Naomi Hawkins (University of Sheffield), Alison Slade (University of Leicester), Contracts and Intellectual Property Rights in Translational R&D – Furthering Safeguards in the Public Interest, 42 Nat. Biotechnol. (2024):
Intellectual property (IP) rights play a central role in debates around access to new technologies. The challenge of balancing private innovation incentives such as patents with public access to the fruits of innovation is particularly acute in the healthcare field. This paper argues that greater attention to the contractual terms in research and commercialisation agreements throughout the translational development chain is a necessary and practically realisable way to achieve an equitable balance for all stakeholders. Such an approach would complement current efforts, such as, for example, the adoption, adaptation or amendment of national and international legal instruments. However, our proposal has the potential to be adopted without global agreement or even any changes to national legislation. Together, key stakeholders in the translational research chain, including public and charitable funders, universities, and commercial companies, have the ability to make important changes to policies and practices and to reflect them in contractual arrangements in order to enhance the wider public interest.