New Beginnings
Having finished reading the fascinating book, “Thou shalt Innovate: How Israeli Ingenuity Repairs the World”, by Avi Jorisch, a single thought kept repeating on a loop in my brain. What is so different about Israel? After all, Israel was founded only 64 years ago on almost barren terrain with hardly any natural resources, little water and with more than half its land mass stretching into desert. Six decades later this country is a world leader in science and technology having the most start-ups per capita worldwide, and the third highest number of patents per head. No small feat. As I sat musing about this, it struck me that we Indians are not very different from the Israelis. Both cultures have emerged from an ancient civilization that have strong family values with emphasis on education and spirituality. The list of similarities is an endless study in itself.
Innovation, suggests author Avi Jorisch, is the sacred calling of modern Israel. The people of Israel love to invent things. Last year, the number of patents granted to Israeli companies in medical instrumentation put it first globally in relation to population size and fourth in terms of number of patents. Israel consistently ranks number one in the world for bio-pharma and life sciences patents.
Working closely with patent attorneys, investors, researchers and corporate business developers, it is not lost on me that a good innovation alone is enough to sail the ship. We should work towards generating and fostering a sustainable patent-conscious research environment which is now a critical task in our knowledge-driven economy. The scientific community must be encouraged and inspired such that each individual has the opportunity to create, grow, and commercialise through the development and exploitation of patents.
This stark reality cannot be more obvious than now as the whole world is on the race to find a cure for the coronavirus. The novel coronavirus outbreak is a crisis that the world has not witnessed for a century. Diseases need prevention, management and treatment mechanisms. The steps that are being taken currently are for delaying the spread of the disease and for management of the affected patients. However, these steps alone cannot restore normalcy, as human life stands disrupted. In order for the world to go back to normal, vaccines and medicines are required.
The entire global community has pitched in to speed up this process. The world intellectual property organization has launched a new search functionality for its global patent database, called ‘Patentscope’, to facilitate the location and retrieval of information contained in published patent documents that may be useful for innovators developing new technologies to fight the covid-19 pandemic. It will provide scientists, engineers, public health policymakers, governments, and members of the public with an easily accessible source of intelligence for improving the detection, prevention, and treatment of diseases such as the novel coronavirus.
Indian pharmaceutical firms have a world class reputation. During the HIV/AIDS outbreak the cost of treatment was drastically reduced by the Indian pharma companies. Many lives were saved globally as healthcare was made affordable. India continues to manufacture and supply reasonably priced medicines and diagnostic kits matching international standards for Malaria, Tuberculosis, HIV, Hepatitis B and C, Dengue, Chikungunya, SARS and H1N1.
Recent developments suggest there is widespread global mistrust. The current lack of a consistent global policy on IP and health, despite the massive outbreak, would result in further delays for production of vaccines and medicines. India can use this windfall to lead the way having at its disposal both the innovative capability, a robust patent system and cost effective large scale manufacturing facilities.
One of the important goals as set out in India’s national IPR policy released in may 2016 was to create a platform for sharing of research. It called for creation of a public platform to function as a common database of IPRS. Such a platform can help creators and innovators connect to potential users, buyers and funding institutions.
On the same lines the “Open Covid Pledge” was developed by the Open Covid Coalition, an international group of scientists and lawyers seeking to accelerate the rapid development and deployment of diagnostics, vaccines, therapeutics, medical equipment and software solutions in this urgent public health crisis. The Open Covid Pledge calls on organisations around the world to make their patents and copyrights freely available in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.
Indian awareness on patents and the possibility of its commercial exploitation is slowly increasing. Indian companies, investors, scientists, bankers and government officials should stop looking at patents as an unnecessary cost and instead should see the bigger picture. In fact for any healthy company, holding an intellectual property portfolio has become the norm. With the economy spinning out of control going back to fundamental ways of making money, like research and innovation leading to world class products, should be encouraged.
Breakthroughs are imminent and this should help jump start the economy and put India on the global map. To quote Li Keqiang “Innovation is an inexhaustible engine for economic development”. This is very true and protecting that innovation with a patent is going to be the jet engine that is going to propel us to a sustainable and successful enterprise.
For more information read
https://www.wipo.int/pressroom/en/articles/2020/article_0008.html
https://www.ft.com/content/5a364eb0-780c-11ea-bd25-7fd923850377
~Nisha
