The governments of numerous low- and middle-income countries are currently instituting rules that strengthen changes in domestic intellectual property legislation, often made to conform to the mandates of "free" trade agreements signed with the United States. These measures frequently include intellectual property provisions that extend beyond the patent law standards agreed upon in recent Worl...

With one of the oldest surviving cultures in the world, Australian Aboriginal people have developed immense knowledge about the diverse Australian flora. Western scientific investigation of some Australian Aboriginal medicinal plants has demonstrated interesting pharmacological activities and chemistry, however the majority of these species have not yet been extensively examined. We argue that ...

The music industry features a complex and changing system of structures, procedures, functions and relationships. It is a major industry whose products are part of our everyday lives, and which has major economic, social and cultural influence. But probably because its end product is supposedly more frivolous than cars, guns or medicines the industry has received little attention from innovatio...

Amir Attaran Canada research chair in law, population health, and global development policy , Donna Barry policy and advocacy director , Shamnad Basheer professor in intellectual property law, Roger Bate resident scholar, David Benton chief executive officer, James Chauvin president, Laurie Garrett senior fellow for global health , Ilona Kickbusch director, global health programme , Jillian Cla...

Drug regulators in Canada and in other nations require innovative pharmaceutical companies to submit undisclosed clinical or other data as a condition of approving the marketing of new pharmaceutical products-the origination of which involves considerable effort and investment. Data protection regulations were enacted in Canada in 2006, which-to some extent-closed a loophole in intellectual pro...

As drug discovery and translational scientists think about using stratification with biomarkers to improve the chances of getting medicines to patients, several areas of expertise need to be considered. These include analytical validation, clinical validation, regulatory affairs and intellectual property. Getting the right input from the right expert at the right time can make or break an effor...

Different forms of protection for inventions in the pharmaceutical industry point to strategies for the perpetuation of patent protection. Based on a literature review showing the specificities of patenting in the industry, the article provides a brief history of drug patents in Brazil, a discussion of patentable and non-patentable inventions, and the modalities and traits of patent protection ...

Canada's Patent Register is a tool created by the Patented Medicines (Notice of Compliance) Regulations to help innovators protect their inventions relating to pharmaceuticals. This tool exists at the intersection between the intellectual property and drug approval regimes. By listing a patent on the Patent Register, an innovator can prevent a generic manufacturer from entering the marketplace ...

A variety of excipients are used to stabilize proteins, suppress protein aggregation, reduce surface adsorption, or to simply provide physiological osmolality. The stabilizers encompass a wide variety of molecules including sugars, salts, polymers, surfactants, and amino acids, in particular arginine. The effects of these excipients on protein stability in solution are mainly caused by their in...

BACKGROUND This article centers around a proposal outlining how research universities could leverage their intellectual property to help close the access gap for health innovations in poor countries. A recent deal between Emory University, Gilead Sciences, and Royalty Pharma is used as an example to illustrate how 'equitable access licensing' could be put into practice. DISCUSSION While the c...