The aim of this project was to evaluate open source models as beneficial contributions to the problem of access to biomedical knowledge. Therefore, a 'feasibility analysis' was pursed. Chapter I of the work deals with traditional justifications and collateral functions of patents, explains typical and emerging trade-offs of the patent system and, with a specific focus on biomedicine, explains the reasons behind the need for flexibilities.
Chapter II deals with biomedical patents and their mutated role in the upstream research scenario. Shortcomings of current public law flexibilities for mitigating economic and allocative distortions within biomedical R&D are also illustrated, together with an early assessment of the use of open source models as private complementary flexibilities.
Chapter III covers the problem of tropical neglected diseases as a clear example of patent failure and explains which alternative incentives are employed in order to spur drug R&D.
Chapter IV concretely examines some ongoing open source initiatives within the biomedical research field, from upstream to downstream levels, illustrating those specific areas where the use of such models is desirable.
Finally, it is shown how open source philosophy may, not simply, constitute a private ordering flexibility for patent rights, but also a scheme with normative force, since introducing inside the intellectual property regime a norm of sharing knowledge, where in the past exclusion and control were deemed natural and essential for the promotion of its own development.