Translational Research Forum at BIO International Convention

BIO is hosting a Translation Research Forum at the BIO International Convention.  NIH Director Collins keynotes an event that will explore how private, public and academic sectors can leverage meaningful partnerships, highlight emerging best practices, explore risk-sharing at the clinical research stage, and explore ways to bridge the gap in funding and know-how necessary to take university research to the next level.

Read the Press Release for more information about panels and speakers.

For registration, conference agenda and exhibitor information, visit 2011 BIO International Convention.

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Fabry Patient Law Suit and Request to NIH for March-in Petition Rehearing

An article out of the Genomics Law Report discussing the recent law suit citing violations of the Bayh Dole Act.

A second article from Patent Docs discusses the request for rehearing of the patients petition to the NIH for march-in.

IPWatchdog.com interview of Bayh-Dole insider

A great article from IPWatchdog.com giving Joe Allen’s (a Birch Bayh staffer) insider perspective on the passage of the Bayh-Dole Act. 

The Article’s Introduction:

William Shakespeare once wrote:

There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.

See Julius Caesar.

We caught the tide– but just barely. That the Bayh-Dole Act passed was amazing. That it passed in a lame duck session of Congress with its principal author defeated, the US Senate changing hands, and a sitting president thrown out, was a miracle. Even then success was not assured. The bureaucracy was waiting to undermine the implementing regulations. Yet the new law survived, strengthening the economy while improving public health and well-being.

U.S. House passes Bayh-Dole 30th Anniversary Concurrent Resolution

On November 15th, the United States House of Representatives voted 385-1 for the Bayh-Dole 30th Anniversary Concurrent Resolution.  

Here are some interesting quotes from the Resolution on the need for and the successes of Bayh-Dole.

“the United States Government is one of the largest funders of research in the world, but that research does not fully benefit American taxpayers unless it contributes new products and processes to the marketplace, thereby creating new companies and jobs, and solving societal problems;”

“the commercial development of discoveries and inventions falls upon private sector entrepreneurs, often requiring millions of dollars in development funding over many years, and even then commercial success is uncertain at best”

“ before the enactment of that Act, few inventions arising from the billions of taxpayer dollars granted each year to American research universities, nonprofit organizations, and Federal laboratories were being translated into commercial products of benefit to the public and the United States economy;”

“a critical factor in developing federally funded inventions into commercial products is the continued involvement of the inventor in the process, and Government patent policies before the enactment of the Bayh-Dole Act chilled the intended incentives of the patent system in this regard;”

“the ability to obtain a reliable patent license for commercial development is needed to justify private sector investments, and Government patent policies before the enactment of the Bayh-Dole Act made negotiating and obtaining such licenses difficult, if not impossible;

“patent ownership of potentially important inventions is crucial in the formation of many start-up companies, which form vital parts of an innovation economy, and ownership rights were discouraged by Government patent policies before the enactment of the Bayh-Dole Act;”

“the success of the Bayh-Dole Act became apparent with the creation and dominance of the United States biotechnology and information technology industries, that remain largely dependent on university research;”

“the Bayh-Dole Act has been widely recognized as a best practice and is now being adopted by other countries (both developed and developing) around the world to better integrate their own research universities into their economies in order to be more competitive;”

“objective examples of how the Bayh-Dole Act has not only benefitted the United States but has also created a better world include the creation of over 150 new drugs, vaccines, or in vitro devices, including the hepatitis B vaccine, cisplatin, carboplatin and taxol anticancer therapeutics, laser eye surgery devices, the Palmaz balloon expandable stent, and many more; and

“economic activity spurred on by the Bayh-Dole Act include the formation of more than 6,500 new companies from the inventions created under the Act, an estimated contribution of $450,000,000,000 to United States gross industrial output, and the creation of 280,000 new high technology jobs between 1999 and 2007:”

“(1) it is the sense of the Congress that— (A) the Bayh-Dole Act (Public Law 96– 517), as amended by Public Law 98–620, has made substantial contributions to the advancement of scientific and technological knowledge, fostered dramatic improvements in public health and safety, strengthened the higher education system, led to the development of new domestic industries and hundreds of thousands of new private sector jobs, and benefitted the economic and trade policies of the United States;”