The strength of pharmaceutical IPRs vis-à-vis foreign direct investment in clinical research: Preliminary findings

Authors

  • Meir Perez Pugatch Division of Health Systems Administration, School of Public Health, Univeristy of Haifa, 80 Achad Haam St, Tel Aviv 65206, Israel.
  • Rachel Chu

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5912/jcb487

Keywords:

clinical trial, foreign direct investment, intellectual property rights, pharmaceutical, developing country

Abstract

This article examines the effect of the intellectual property (IP) environment in developing countries on the level of foreign direct investment (FDI) and technology transfer occurring in the biopharmaceutical field in these countries. In particular, it considers the correlation between the strength of IP protection in several developing countries (using the Pharmaceutical IP Index) and the number of clinical trials taking place in these countries (as a proxy of biomedical FDI). The article finds that overall, the strength of national pharmaceutical IP environments provide a good estimate of the level of clinical trials taking place in these countries. Accordingly, countries with a more robust level of pharmaceutical IP protection tend to enjoy a greater level of clinical trial activity by multinational research-based companies. In other words, by choosing to improve their level of protection of pharmaceutical IPRs (together with other factors), developing countries may also be exposed to higher levels of biomedical FDI, not least in the field of clinical trials.

Author Biographies

  • Meir Perez Pugatch, Division of Health Systems Administration, School of Public Health, Univeristy of Haifa, 80 Achad Haam St, Tel Aviv 65206, Israel.
    is a senior lecturer at the University of Haifa in Israel, where he is also the Chair of the Division of Health Systems Administration at the School of Public Health. He is also the Director of Research of the Stockholm Network. His research areas include: innovation, intellectual property policy, management and exploitation of knowledge assets, technology transfer, entrepreneurship, health technology assessment and the political economy of public health systems.
  • Rachel Chu
    is a senior analyst and researcher focusing on intellectual property policy, innovation, technology transfer and public health.

References

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Vol. 17 No. 4 (2011)

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Article