[Ip-health] Ron Marchant: Managing Prize Systems: Some Thoughts on the Options

[Manon Ress]

http://www.kestudies.org/

Knowledge Ecology Studies, Vol 2 (2008)
Managing Prize Systems: Some Thoughts on the Options
Ron Marchant

Abstract

Ron Marchant, a former Chief Executive of the UK Intellectual Property
Office, considers the use of cash prizes as an incentive to stimulate
investments in medical research and development. Three possible areas
for the use of prizes are discussed: (1) specific diseases and
conditions which primarily concern persons living in poverty in
developing countries; (2) a broader set of unmet health needs in
developing countries; or (3) a broader approach, like the U.S. Medical
Innovation Prize Act (S.2210, 110th U.S. Congress), which replaces
patent-enforced monopolies with cash prizes as the reward for all
medical products. Also considered are policy constraints and objectives,
and how they may influence the design of prizes. Marchant concludes with
a tentative proposal for using prizes to stimulate research and
development for diseases and conditions that disproportionately impact
developing countries. This proposal would combine R&D grants with a
variant of the existing framework of patent protection, building in
voluntary agreements to offer a =93license of right=94 in order to promote
competition and access to the patented inventions.