Unnecessary Government Interference Would Stifle American Innovation

Oct 13, 2022 at 11:11 pm by Staff


By Abby Trotter

 

Innovation is the backbone of the American economy and the key to our future. American-bred life science and technology has helped solve many of our nation’s most complex health care problems and improve our daily lives. 

I’ve experienced this over the past decade working with Life Science Tennessee to help grow and sustain our state’s strong biopharmaceutical and high-technology industries while educating policymakers, media and many others on the importance of building an innovation economy. Tennessee’s life science community, which employs nearly 34,000 people, is at the center of many health care breakthroughs, thanks to some of our nation’s best and most highly regarded research institutions. 

For example, researchers at Vanderbilt University, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory are leading the charge to develop lifesaving treatments and cures for complex, chronic conditions like COVID-19, cancer and even the ongoing opioid epidemic, which has plagued our state for decades. 

The link between our research universities and the private sector has long been a major driver and a critical component of American innovation. Congress recognized the important partnership in 1980 when it passed the Bayh-Dole Act, permitting universities to patent their researchers’ inventions even when partly funded by the federal government. This system has worked well, protecting and promoting American innovation—including significant research done here in Tennessee—which has led to cures that have saved countless lives around the world. 

Since its passage, the number of patents from government-funded research has skyrocketed, reaching more than 40,000 in 2017. Hundreds of new laboratories have opened, and scientists and researchers have opted to take their skills to the classroom to teach the next generation of innovators so that we can continue to see new cures.  Universities nationwide have launched more than 15,000 American startups and created more than 300 new patented medicines. 

Tennessee’s academic centers have contributed not only to a strong biosciences industry, but a thriving economy, providing an excellent case study on the importance of maintaining the strong partnership between our universities and the biopharmaceutical sector.

Unfortunately, some activists want to use an incorrect interpretation of the Bayh-Dole Act to try and lower the cost of new treatments. And while many might see this as a worthy goal, this misguided effort will come at the expense of new biopharmaceutical investment and future innovation.

Another misguided effort is underway as well with a proposal to waive the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) beyond the agreed upon scope to include COVID-19 therapeutics and diagnostics. This bad policy would impact American intellectual property (IP) rights and cause severe repercussions for future American pharmaceutical innovation and manufacturing.

Together the threatened use of so called “march-in rights” and the new TRIPS waiver are misdirected and unfair. The consequences will significantly weaken innovation and will put future Tennessee research as risk, including research that is desperately needed to find new cures and fight untreated diseases. If they are successful, thousands of Tennesseans – and millions of Americans – who depend on the future of medicine will suffer.

The government shouldn’t be trying to fix proven systems that have led to the development of so many new medicines while also helping to propel the American economy.  That’s why I and so many who work in America’s biopharmaceutical research sector encourage Congress and the Biden Administration to leave the Bayh-Dole Act as-is and oppose the TRIPS waiver.

At a time when America’s life science industry developed lifesaving COVID-19 vaccines in record time while also making other unprecedented strides in medical innovation, it’s wrong to discourage the partnership between universities, private sector and government that has helped make it possible.

We can all agree that forward-thinking policy solutions are needed to lower the cost of health care. But we can’t do so at the expense of private sector investment in innovation and commercialization of new inventions and new cures that save lives. 

Abby Trotter is the Executive Director of BioTN and Life Science Tennessee and has significant experience working with the state’s startups and innovation-based economy. A native of Oak Ridge, Abby is a graduate of the University of Tennessee.