In collaboration with partners from the Program on Global health and Technology Access of Duke University, DNDi organized a workshop on intellectual property and open innovation on 4th December 2010 in New Delhi, India. The workshop gathered around 50 participants including DNDi partners, representatives of Indian civil society and DNDi staff.

Representatives of ICMR, Indian civil society and academia provided an overview of the trends in the Indian pharmaceutical industry, IP management by ICMR and the challenge of ensuring access to medicines in India and other developing countries under the 2005 India Patent Act. MSF and DNDi representatives provided examples of strategies to ensure both innovation and access, through delinking the cost of R&D from the price of the newly developed products. The last discussion focused on how open source innovation and increased sharing of building blocks of knowledge can facilitate and support  the development of new products for neglected diseases and access to those.

If you would like to download the Agenda, please click here.

Panel 1: Enabling innovation and access – the Indian context and beyond
Moderator: German Velasquez, Senior Advisor, Health & Development, South Centre

1. R&D for development of new drugs for neglected diseases: A proposal for South-South cooperation
by Sudip Chaudhuri (Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta)

2. Intellectual Property Management at the Indian Council of Medical Research
by Kanikaram Satyanarayana (ICMR)

3. Patients’ perspective for enabling access of health innovations
by Loon Gangte (Delhi Network of Positive People)

4. The de-linkage of the cost of research and development and the price of health products
by Michelle Childs (MSF Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines)

5. DNDi’s practices for innovation and access
by Jean-Pierre Paccaud (DNDi)

Panel 2:  Open innovation initiatives – Towards an open source innovation platform for neglected diseases

1. Affordable healthcare for All – Framing an Innovation Platform for Neglected Diseases R&D
by Zakir Thomas (CSIR)

Photos