Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0

Author-Name: Annamaria Conti
Author-X-Name-First: Annamaria
Author-X-Name-Last: Conti
Author-Email: annamaria.conti@epfl.ch
Author-Workplace-Name: Chaire en Economie et Management de l'Innovation, Collège du Management de la Technologie, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Author-Name: Patrick Gaulé
Author-X-Name-First: Patrick
Author-X-Name-Last: Gaulé
Author-Email: patrick.gaule@epfl.ch
Author-Workplace-Name: Chaire en Economie et Management de l'Innovation, Collège du Management de la Technologie, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Title: Universities and access to medicines: What is the optimal ‘humanitarian license’?
Abstract: This paper seeks to add an economic contribution to the current debate on using university licensing contracts to improve access to medicines in developing countries. We build a simple model in which we have a university licensing out an academic invention to a profit-maximizing pharmaceutical company. We compare three different types of licensing contracts that the university might use to enhance access to pharmaceuticals in the South: (1) an exclusive license limited to the North; (2) an exclusive license worldwide with a price cap in the South; and (3) an exclusive license worldwide with a price cap in the South and a clause specifying that the licensee would lose its exclusivity in the South if it does not supply the Southern market. We show that in a simple model with asymmetric information on production costs the latter type of contract dominates the two others.

Length: 25 pages
Creation-Date: 2008-02

File-URL: https://cdm-repec.epfl.ch/cmi-wpaper/cemi-workingpaper-2008-005.pdf

File-Format: Application/pdf
Number: cemi-workingpaper-2008-005
Classification-JEL: L3, O32, O34, O38
Keywords: technology licensing, university licensing, access to medicines

Handle: RePEc:cmi:wpaper:cemi-workingpaper-2008-005