Intellectual Property Issues in Life Sciences: Disputes and Controversies

Intellectual Property Issues in Life Sciences: Disputes and Controversies highlights emerging legal, social, and regulatory issues pertaining to various areas of life sciences. Patents occupy a prominent position in the innovation systems in the life sciences, but to what extent they support, or hinder innovation is widely disputed. Life science is a broad subject including agriculture, ecology, microbiology, plant and animal sciences, health and diseases, biotechnology, etc. However, despite the broad applications of biotechnology and molecular biology techniques, profits on investments are surprisingly low. Thus, it is vitally important for universities, public research organizations, and private enterprises to protect their innovations. There are vast differences of opinion on patentability of living organisms, which are largely barred from patent protection. However, mind-sets are rapidly shifting and IP issues in life sciences are receiving increasing attention. To compete with progressive bio-based economies the developing countries are amending their IP laws to encourage investment.

An effort has been made to avoid considering policy in isolation, but rather to emphasize the interplay between the policy mix, the wider institutional setting, market forces, and system organization solutions. Both empirical and conceptual chapters are included to bring them together and to yield facts and interpretations for the readers.

This book presents expert opinions by frontier academicians, researchers, and attorneys on the recent challenges in the rapidly evolving life science industry. The present book offers comprehensive knowledge on the contemporary issues in life sciences to a wide range of audiences including students, scholars, researchers, legal practitioners, policymakers, and others interested in emerging intellectual property issues.

Features

• The only compilation available on the contemporary intellectual property issues in life sciences in the post-COVID era.
• Focuses on the commercial, regulatory, bioethical, and socio-legal implications of patents in life sciences.
• Describes an integrated approach for sustained innovations in various areas of life sciences.
• Discusses the recent IP controversies in a pan-global context.
• Presents viewpoints to front-line practitioners, viz attorneys, researchers, etc.

Dr. Chetan Keswani is the Head of Agro-Biotechnology Laboratory in the Academy of Biology and Biotechnology, Southern Federal University, Rostov-on-Don, Russia. He has a keen interest in regulatory, commercialization and intellectual property aspects of agriculturally important microorganisms. He is an elected Fellow of the Linnaean Society of London, UK and received Best Ph.D. Thesis Award from the Uttar Pradesh Academy of Agricultural Sciences, India in 2015. He is an editorial board member of several reputed agricultural microbiology journals and has edited ten books on the subject. For his editorial endeavors he was awarded the Publons Top Peer Review Award in Agricultural Sciences (2018), Outstanding Editor Award (2019) by Archives of Phytopathology and Plant Protection, Taylor and Francis, and Springer-Society Award (2020) for Excellent contribution to the journal Environmental Sustainability, Springer-Nature. In addition, he has been listed among the World’s Top 2% Scientists for the single year 2022 (Sub-fields: Plant Biology & Botany and Biotechnology).

Dr. Cristina Possas is a Full Professor and Researcher at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation-Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Scientific Advisor for Fiocruz´ President she directed the Advisory Unit for Special Studies for the Presidency. She has been for ten years Director of the Research and Technological Development Unit of the Brazilian National AIDS Program in the Ministry of Health and for two years the Executive Secretary of the National Biosafety Commission - CTNBio, responsible for evaluation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) projects nominated by the Brazilian Minister of Science and Technology. She has a post-doctorate in International Health from Harvard University, School of Public Health, where she stayed for 10 years as a Takemi Fellow, Fulbright Fellow and Visiting Scientist at the Harvard New Diseases Group. She coordinated FIOCRUZ Graduate Programs in Public Health and in Clinical Research on Infectious Diseases (Master’s, Doctoral and Postdoctoral). She developed at Fiocruz her academic activities and research projects at the National School of Public Health and at the Evandro Chagas National Institute of Infectious Diseases-INI, in the Laboratory of AIDS Clinical Research-LAPCLIN-AIDS, and at Bio-Manguinhos, where she is Senior Scientific Advisor and Professor at the Multi-institutional Doctoral Program in Nanobiosystems.