Leveraging China's potential
By Hank A. McKinnell (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-07-26 08:32 IPR and innovation
I want to first stress that China has made
significant inroads in strengthening its protection of patents and intellectual
property rights (IPR), and I applaud the efforts China has made to date.
I believe increasingly enhanced IPR protection will greatly expedite the
growth of research-based pharmaceuticals in and biotech industries in China, and
it is critical that China continues down the path of strengthening protection
for intellectual property rights.
In fact, I believe the most important
step in moving towards a world-class life science industry is to ensure
confidence in the protection of intellectual property rights.
Given the
10-to-15 years it takes to develop and register a new medicine, you can
understand why weak IPR protection could have an enormous chilling effect on
innovation.
Confidence that innovation will be recognized and
protected leads to an explosion of innovation. And, in the research-based
pharmaceutical industry in particular, success in innovation has a real
"multiplier effect" on the surrounding economy.
We are finally moving
into the long awaited, "golden age of medicine."
After a relative lull
in pharmaceutical breakthroughs, the laboratories of the research-based
pharmaceutical industry are brimming with breakthroughs. Our industry will
certainly make more progress in controlling disease over the next two decades
than we made over the previous two millennia.
And while a range of
groups, from universities to corporations, do biomedical research, it is private
companies, like Pfizer, that account for 95 per cent of all new medicines.
First and foremost, the government's focus on strengthening intellectual
property rights is the right direction for China.
In addition to
strengthened IPR protection, China's pharmaceutical industry would also benefit
from a rethinking of the balance between risk and rewards, innovation and
pricing.
(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)
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