[Ip-health] Edwards 2008 platform: "Pursue Prizes as Innovation Incentives"

[Mike Palmedo]

http://johnedwards.com/news/headlines/20070614-health-care-costs-quality.pd=
f

REFORMING HEALTH CARE TO MAKE IT AFFORDABLE, ACCOUNTABLE, AND UNIVERSAL

(Fact sheet on John Edwards' healthcare plan, released by his campaign)
June 14, 2007

[snip]

=95 Pursue Prizes as Innovation Incentives: Edwards will convene an expert
panel to identify disorders where prizes =96 not patent monopolies=97would
offer new incentives to researchers, guaranteed gains to companies, and
lower costs to patients. Drug companies would know that if they
generated a life-saving breakthrough, they would be guaranteed a
significant payment in exchange for allowing competition in
manufacturing and distribution. With prizes, the government will pay
more up front, but it will save taxpayers in the end because companies
will generate breakthrough drugs more quickly and at a lower cost. Key
questions about the pricing of prizes, the appropriateness of prizes for
different diseases, and the relationship to patent protections remain to
be resolved, but prizes are a promising innovation that Edwards will
pursue.[88]

[snip]

FOOTNOTE:

88 S. Woolley. "Prizes Not Patents." Forbes, (April 18, 2006); J.
Stiglitz. "Prizes, Not Patents." Project Syndicate (2007),
http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/stiglitz81; Consumer Project
on Technology. "Medical Prize Innovation Fund." (2007),
http://www.cptech.org/ip/health/prizefund/cptech-articles.html.

--
Mike Palmedo
Research Coordinator
Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property
American University, Washington College of Law
4910 Massachutsetts Ave., NW Washington, DC 20016
T - 202-274-4442 | F 202-274-0659
mpalmedo@wcl.american.edu