COVID-19 Seen as Tipping Point to Lower Drug Prices, Patent Sharing

Dinsmore intellectual property partner Brian O'Shaughnessy spoke with Bloomberg Law this week about patents as they pertain to treatments for COVID-19, specifically the concept of the government invoking its power to seize pharma companies’ patents.

If patient advocates push too hard to force the equivalent of open sourcing in medical research, it could discourage drugmakers from investing in new vaccines or treatments.

“We don’t know which [vaccine or treatment] is going to work, so we want to have a lot of people attacking this problem, and we should be providing appropriate incentives,” Brian O’Shaughnessy, senior vice president of public policy for the Licensing Executives Society, said.

Compulsory licensing is “a blunt instrument,” he said.

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