By Elizabeth Rader on March 1, 2004 at 10:09 am
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that the UC Santa Barbara is donating a patent on a treatment for schistosomiasis to the Institute for One World Health. The institute develops drugs for use in third world countries, drugs that might otherwise not be developed. Great work.
Sadly, the reason for the donation was that commercial drug companies showed little interest in the patent. The cure is potentially important for Africa, Asia and South America. Sherylle Englander, in charge of licensing the University's IP, said she thought if they simply placed the invention in the public domain, no one would develop it. A sad comment, to my mind.
One World Health would have the same access to the technology as it does now if the invention were donated to the public domain. The only difference is that other scientists might also try to develop it, maybe along different lines. Normally a race, or competition, is considered good for innovation and for development. Obviously, someone sees a benefit in keeping the rights exclusive.
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