Institute News

The Conference addressed the importance of technology transfer and regional innovation for Latin American countries to develop their great potential for the production of renewable energies in an economically sustainable manner.What are the challenges and the appropriate regulatory frameworks to achieve these objectives? Innovative companies and specialists in regulation from different areas of the renewable energy sector discussed these issues in the first Conference panel.
 

Based on its results, academics from different Latin American countries discussed in the second and third panels the need for regulatory adjustments in the fields of technology transfer contracts and competition law.

Reto Hilty hold a talk at the inauguration of the local Observatory and at the opening of the Conference. Pedro Henrique D. Batista, Research Fellow at the Institute, moderated the first panel of the Conference.

For the sixth time now, the two-day event is organized by Ph.D. students and Postdocs of the Department for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Research headed by Dietmar Harhoff to give young scholars the opportunity to present their work.

The RISE6 Workshop on 18/19 December 2023 aims at stimulating a rigorous in-depth discussion of a selected number of research papers by Ph.D. students and Junior Postdocs, providing feedback and connecting with peers from other research institutions.

Keynote speaker of the RISE6 Workshop is Ina Ganguli (UMass Amherst).

Get the Call for Papers.

See RISE6 Workshop Website.

The goal of the Munich Summer Institute is to stimulate a rigorous in-depth discussion of a select number of research papers and to strengthen the interdisciplinary international research community in these areas. Researchers in economics, law, management and related fields at all stages of their career attend the Munich Summer Institute as presenters in a plenary or a poster session, as discussants or as attendants. The MSI features three keynote lectures, 12 plenary presentations, and a daily poster session including a poster slam.

The Munich Summer Institute focuses on quantitative empirical research. It is jointly organized by ETH Zurich, HEC Lausanne,LMU Munich, the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Northeastern University, and TUM.

More information on the MSI website.

Originally launched in Turin, the workshop location rotates between major European research locations such as the Centre for Research on Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Bath (2018), the GREThA at the Université de Bordeaux-CNRS (2019), and KU Leuven in (2022). Already in 2020, the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition hosted the 14th WOEPSR. However, it could only take place online due to the coronavirus pandemic. Next year, the workshop is set to return to its founding institution, the University of Turin.

The organizing team of WOEPSR 2023 included Dietmar Harhoff, Michael E. Rose, and Elisabeth Hofmeister from the Max Planck Institute of Innovation and Competition. Joint organizers were Hanna Hottenrott, Thomas Schaper, and Julian Schwierzy from TUM.

This year’s workshop was finally held in person again. Everyone markedly enjoyed the personal exchange over the course of the workshop: recurring participants reunited, while aspiring researchers had an excellent opportunity to network within this enthusiastic community.

The 18 presentations in five sessions over two days were very well received by up to 60 participants. A particular highlight was the panel discussion themed “AI and Science” that included panelists from both industry and academia. The audience could engage in an in-depth discussion of what AI changes in science ‒ and what remains untouched.

The Topics at a Glance

The first day started with presentations on the role of universities in coordinating scientific research as well as the impact of the working language in research institutions on attracting scientific talent. In the second session, presenters investigated the effects of different political shocks on scientists’ productivity as well as the ties between domestic and foreign scientists. The day continued with questions related to different ways of research funding, such as grant schemes and procurement measures. In the last session, presenters examined the search process of scientists as well as the impact of advisor relationships on individual careers.

As a tribute to the late Paul A. David, Professor Emeritus at Stanford University, the first day concluded with a memorial session. Paul, who sadly passed away earlier this year, was not only a pivotal scholar in the economics of scientific progress and technical change, but an esteemed and long-standing member of the WOEPSR scientific committee. Many friends and family members attended the session, both in person and online, to share their personal memories.

In honor of Paul David’s contributions to this field, the “2023 WOEPSR Award in Memory of Paul A. David” was presented to Dror Shvadron for his work “Bread Upon the Waters: Corporate Science and the Benefits from Follow-on Public Research”. The award will be given annually to a young economist under the age of 40 or within less than 10 years of receiving a doctoral degree.

The second day began with two presentations on the benefits of publicly funded research. The final session of the workshop titled “AI in Science and Innovation” took up questions from the panel discussion. Presenters not only investigated how AI can act as a manager in science projects, but also showed how novel AI applications can be used to better measure two common concepts in the economics of science: the impact of science and the origin of ideas.

See the complete program with all topics here.

More information on the workshop website and further impressions on Twitter under #woepsr2023.

We thank all organizing parties involved as well as all participants, speakers and discussants for a truly exceptional and inspiring workshop and look forward to WOEPSR 2024 in Turin.

The roundtable was organized by Liudmyla Petrenko, Daria Kim, and Oksana Kashyntseva, and focused on health-related policies and regulations in Ukraine.

The speakers represented a wide range of institutions, including the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, the Kyiv National Economic University, the Ukrainian Association for Clinical Research, the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, the National Academy of Legal Sciences of Ukraine, and the Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University.

The Ukrainian Pharmaceutical Industry: Strategic and Industrial Policy Perspectives

In the first panel, moderated by Dietmar Harhoff, the discussion focused on the high rate of pre-war development of the industry, its potential, and the devastation of the first year of the war.

Ukrainian pharma has over 100 years of history. The first industrial pharmaceutical production was established in Kharkiv in 1907. During Soviet times, approximately 70 % of the industrial pharmaceutical and research capacity of the Soviet Union was concentrated in Ukraine. In the year before the war, Ukraine’s pharmaceutical market totaled over 3.6 billion USD. The pharmacy segment accounted for 3.2 billion USD, while the hospital segment accounted for 0.4 billion USD.

As of today, 1,400 buildings in Ukraine have been damaged or destroyed, including 574 health care facilities. The majority are primary, emergency, and specialized care institutions. According to preliminary estimates, the cost of reconstruction is about 1 billion USD. Correspondingly, the Ukrainian pharmaceutical market losses in 2022 compared to 2021 amounted to 22.4 % in physical terms (units of drugs), 26.7 % in monetary terms, and 19.2 % in pharmacies, of which nearly 4,000 were closed. As a consequence, the access to medicine was disrupted all over Ukraine.

Drug Research and Development in Ukraine

The second panel, moderated by Anastasiia Lutsenko, focused on clinical trials.

Clinical research before the war had a significant economic impact. Every year, Ukraine’s share of patients in clinical trials was 2 % of the global patient pool (30,000 active participants in 500 studies), which is a great share for such a small country. In the five years before the start of the war, the number of new clinical studies increased by a factor of 2.5, the number research sites grew by 20 % and the number of active researchers in the field by 44 %.

The plan for restoring the Ukrainian health care system from the consequences of the war for the next decade provides for exemption from VAT on imports of medicines for clinical trials, tax, and other incentives for companies involved in conducting clinical trials, the development of the research infrastructure and research potential, and the introduction of an insurance system for clinical research in the form of compensation for possible damages to all participants in clinical trials.

A Regulatory Framework Outlook for the Ukrainian Pharmaceutical Sector

The presenters of the third panel, moderated by Daria Kim, criticized the practice of pharmaceutical marketing in Ukraine.

They accused the inadequate approach of pharmaceutical and medical professionals in performing their duties, for example, by promoting products that are either dangerous to patients or without proper therapeutic effect to receive an improper benefit. They also addressed the monopolization of pharmacy activity, which is carried out in covert form and results in significant price increases for pharmaceutical products, and the adulteration of pharmaceutical products.

The tacit support of monopolization of pharmacy activities by the state, especially by local governments, and the creation of pharmacy mega-chains has led to minimization of economic competition and abuse of monopoly power. The state’s tacit consent to the development of marketing agreements in the pharmaceutical market has increased the cost of medicines. Comparison with prices in reference countries has shown that, before the war, prices for pharmaceutical products in Ukraine were inflated by 40 % due to the use of marketing agreements.

Perspectives on Intellectual Property in the Pharmaceutical Industry in Ukraine

The last panel, moderated by Reto M. Hilty, showed that Ukraine has significant production capacities with about 120 pharmaceutical companies, which offers options for further cooperation between Ukraine and the European Union:

• Contract manufacturing for major international producers of medicines, transfer of new technologies and production of innovative pharmaceuticals (to supply the markets of the EU, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, and Middle East and North Africa)
• Integration of Ukraine into reduced supply chains through the production of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) for the needs of the EU
• Production of mRNA-based vaccines in Ukraine
• Guarantee of uninterrupted supply of generic medicines (by replacing supplies from China and India)
• Conducting clinical trials in Ukraine to replace the Russian market, where trials are now suspended by most international companies due to international sanctions.

The roundtable ended with appeals to the EU and international partners to develop and implement programs to encourage international companies to cooperate on technology transfer and the localization of drug production in Ukraine, and to make use of the country’s logistical advantages. It was also suggested to create financial support programs for the development of API production in Ukraine. The regulatory barriers for the export of Ukrainian medicines to the EU should be simplified through the implementation of special inspection procedures to ensure good manufacturing practice (GMP) following EU GMP standards, and special inspection procedures for the domestic market of Ukraine (PIC/S GMP standards) as well. This should be accompanied by the establishment of training programs and the appropriate validation of inspectors issuing certificates according to EU GMP standards for Ukrainian producers.

We thank all speakers and participants, especially our guests from Ukraine, as well as the organizers for their valuable contributions, and look forward to further Roundtables to help rebuild Ukraine for a properous future.

See the full program with all speakers and their affiliations, and all topics.

To the short review of the first exploratory roundtable held on 1 December 2022.

The project implemented by Yuriy Kapitsa is dedicated to the modern development of intellectual property law in the European Union and the alignment of Ukrainian legislation with the EU acquis. The project envisages a complex study of current trends in the development of EU policy and intellectual property law in 2017 – 2022. Furthermore, within the project a comparative study of the EU and Ukrainian legislation and the definition of directions for the approximation of Ukrainian IP law to the current changes in the EU legislation.

The relevance of the project is related to the integration of Ukraine and the EU within the framework of the Association Agreement between the European Union and Ukraine of 2014 and Ukraine’s status as a candidate for EU membership, which implies the alignment of Ukrainian legislation with EU legislation. The research was characterized by a creative atmosphere, in which he discussed with Silke von Lewinski, Heiko Richter and other colleagues, issues of the development of EU legislation.

Currently, Yuriy Kapitsa continues his work at the Centre for Intellectual Property Studies and Technology Transfer of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. He is actively working with the new Ukrainian Patent Office – the Ukrainian National Office for Intellectual Property and Innovations – on the approximation of Ukrainian and EU legislation in the field of intellectual property and other issues of European integration. The scope of his work also includes legal support for the creation and commercialization of intellectual property rights at the institutes of the Academy of Sciences. This concerns, in particular, the extension of the application of the current forms of technology transfer and R&D agreements at the institutes of the Academy.

About Yuriy Kapitsa:
Yuriy Kapitsa, Dr. of Legal Sciences (habil.), J.S.D., is the Director of the Centre for Intellectual Property Studies and Technology Transfer of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and has been engaged in comparative studies of EU and Ukrainian intellectual property law and protection and commercialization of intellectual property in academic institutions for many years. He led the National project on approximation of Ukrainian legislation in the field of intellectual property to the EU legislation within the framework of the national program on approximation of Ukrainian legislation to that of the European Union. He has also participated as an expert in a number of EU projects on the approximation of third country legislation to the EU acquis. He is the author and co-author of the books European Union Intellectual Property Law: Formation, Institutes, Directions of Development, 2017, 2021; Copyright and Related Rights in Europe, 2012; Intellectual Property Law of the European Union and the Legislation of Ukraine, 2006; Inventive Activity in Academic Organizations, 2021; National Report Innovation Ukraine 2020 etc., as well as a number of academic articles (ResearchGate), co-author of the Civil Code of Ukraine (Chapter 4 “Intellectual Property Law”), the Laws on Science and Technical Activities, on Innovation Activity and many others. Dr. Kapitsa is a member of the Working Group on Recodification (Updating) of the Civil Legislation of Ukraine established by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Working Group on Intellectual Property Law of the European Federation of National Academies of Sciences (ALLEA).