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Center for Life Sciences Innovation

Center for Life Sciences Innovation

ITIF’s Center for Life Sciences Innovation advocates for accelerating biopharmaceutical innovation by recognizing that the public and private sectors both have essential roles to play. The Center’s mission is to study and advance the many technology, economic, and policy factors underpinning successful life sciences innovation—from how new technologies like artificial intelligence, genomics, and gene editing are powering the next generation of biomedical innovation to the economics of life sciences innovation, including the role of IP and incentives therein; international competitiveness in life sciences innovation; and foremost the optimal set of public policies, at home and abroad, to spur greater levels of much-needed biopharmaceutical innovation. (Read more.)

  • Special series on evidence-based biopharmaceutical policymaking: Better evidence is needed to evaluate the impact of public policy changes on new drug development. To address this need, ITIF is sponsoring a research grant program and a special issue of Health Affairs Scholar. Grant proposals are due December 15. (Read the guidelines.) The Center will serve as a hub for this ongoing work. (Read the series.)
  • Special series on global health innovation: Innovate4Health is a joint project of ITIF and the University of Akron IP Center (UAIP), spotlighting innovators from around the world who have leveraged IP systems to bring their life-saving innovations to market.
  • Stay up to date on our work by signing up for ITIF’s weekly email and checking the box to get information about “Life Sciences.”

Featured Publications

Evidence to Inform Biopharmaceutical Policy: A Call for Research on the Impact of Public Policies on Investment in Drug Development

Evidence to Inform Biopharmaceutical Policy: A Call for Research on the Impact of Public Policies on Investment in Drug Development

The scope and magnitude of the trade-off between immediate savings from lower drug prices and future health benefits from clinical development remain poorly understood and quantified. To support rigorous evaluations and inform evidence-based policymaking, it is crucial to invest in this area through research grants and improved access to federal and private data.

Evidence-Based Biopharmaceutical Policymaking: Symposium Report

Evidence-Based Biopharmaceutical Policymaking: Symposium Report

There is a need for more rigorous evidence and more recent, high-quality data to inform biopharmaceutical policymaking by shedding light on the relationship between pharmaceutical firms’ expectations of financial returns from new drugs and their ability to invest in further R&D to discover future generations of drugs.

The Relationship Between Biopharma R&D Investment and Expected Returns: Improving Evidence to Inform Policy

The Relationship Between Biopharma R&D Investment and Expected Returns: Improving Evidence to Inform Policy

Better evidence is needed to evaluate the impact of policy changes on new drug development. Greater availability of government data should support more rigorous evaluations to inform evidence-based policymaking.

Not Again: Why the United States Can’t Afford to Lose Its Biopharma Industry

Not Again: Why the United States Can’t Afford to Lose Its Biopharma Industry

America’s leadership in advanced-technology industries can never be taken for granted, as evidenced by its losses in telecommunications equipment, semiconductors, televisions, solar panels, and chemicals. Policymakers must recognize what went wrong in those cases to avoid a similar industrial decline in the biopharmaceutical industry.

How Skeptics Misconstrue the Link Between Drug Prices and Innovation

How Skeptics Misconstrue the Link Between Drug Prices and Innovation

A recent article in the British Medical Journal contends “high drug prices” are neither necessary nor justified to sustain biopharmaceutical innovation. But it misrepresents and misinterprets the facts, highlighting how faulty the rationale is for drug price controls.

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Events

December 10, 2024|Register Now

Innovate4Health: How IP and Innovation Are Solving Global Health Challenges

Please join ITIF, the Geneva Network, and the University of Akron School of Law for an event releasing a new report profiling 24 pioneering case studies from five regions—Latin America, Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Middle East and North Africa—where IP rights have enabled innovators to create impactful health solutions, particularly in the developing world.

March 5, 2024

Preserving U.S. Leadership in Biopharmaceutical Innovation

Watch now for an expert panel discussion surrounding the ITIF report examining why the United States lost its lead in other advanced technology industries, and how policymakers can avoid repeating the same mistakes in the biopharmaceutical sector.

April 4, 2023

Lessons From the Rise and Fall of Japan’s Life-Sciences Innovation Ecosystem

Tune in for an expert panel discussion examining where Japan faltered in this sector, what it must do to restore its life-sciences innovation leadership and competitiveness, why that would be in the best interests of both Japan and the United States—and what America must do to avoid following in Japan’s footsteps.

March 24, 2023

Preserving a Virtuous Cycle: The Economics of Biopharmaceutical Innovation

Watch the release event of a new report that examines the dynamics that underpin the economics of biopharmaceutical innovation and how to maintain a supportive environment that keeps the United States in the lead of life-sciences innovation.

March 29, 2022

How Using March-in Rights Would Threaten America’s Research Universities

ITIF hosted a panel discussion with leading experts on innovation policy, technology transfer, and business, who spoke to the practical implications of exercising federal “march-in” rights and why it would be a grave and ill-timed mistake for the U.S. health, competitiveness, and research landscape.

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Sandra Barbosu
Sandra Barbosu

Associate Director

Center for Life Sciences Innovation

Read Bio
Stephen Ezell
Stephen Ezell

Vice President, Global Innovation Policy, and Director, Center for Life Sciences Innovation

Information Technology and Innovation Foundation

Read Bio

Bill Andresen
Bill Andresen

Associate Vice President for Federal Affairs

University of Pennsylvania

Read Bio
David Beier
David Beier

Managing Director

Bay City Capital

Read Bio
Andrei Iancu
Andrei Iancu

Partner

Irell & Manella, LLP

Read Bio
Frank R. Lichtenberg
Frank R. Lichtenberg

Cain Brothers & Company Professor of Healthcare Management in the Faculty of Business

Columbia University Graduate School of Business

Read Bio
Catherine Marinac
Catherine Marinac

Assistant Professor of Medicine

Harvard Medical School

Read Bio
Gary Puckrein
Gary Puckrein

Founding President and CEO

National Minority Quality Forum

Read Bio

More From the Center

November 18, 2024|Press Releases

AI Can Transform Drug Development, New ITIF Report Finds

AI has the potential to cut drug development times nearly in half, and ITIF’s new report highlights the transformative impact and policy needs to make it happen.

November 15, 2024|Reports & Briefings

Harnessing AI to Accelerate Innovation in the Biopharmaceutical Industry

AI has the potential to transform drug development by enhancing productivity across the entire development pipeline, boosting biopharmaceutical innovation, accelerating the delivery of new therapies, and fostering competition to help improve public health outcomes.

October 4, 2024|Blogs

Draghi Wants to Have His Drug Cake and Eat It Too

Mario Draghi's 2024 report addresses the EU's biopharmaceutical decline, citing challenges like underfunded research, fragmented pricing, and competition from the U.S. and China. It recommends reforms but underplays the impact of EU drug price controls on innovation.

October 3, 2024|Publications

Guidelines for Grant Proposals on Evidence-Based Biopharma Policy

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation will offer grants for new research that helps to inform the relationship between the expectation of a financial reward for an approved new drug or new indication in the United States and the (1) investment in research and development for new and existing drugs, and/or (2) the approval of new drugs and new indications.

September 19, 2024|Blogs

Beyond What Meets the Eye: How SELENA+ Is Revolutionizing the Detection of Eye Diseases

Selena is transforming eye care by leveraging AI to detect diseases like diabetic retinopathy with unprecedented accuracy, helping to diagnose issues early and prevent blindness, thus improving patient outcomes and offering more access globally.

August 28, 2024|Blogs

Alzheimer’s Disease Next Game Changer: TauRx Pharmaceutical’s Novel Tau Aggregation Inhibitor

TauRx is revolutionizing Alzheimer's treatment with a novel drug that targets toxic brain proteins, offering fresh hope in the fight against this devastating disease.

August 16, 2024|Blogs

Innovative Cure For All: How CurASeal’s Plant-Based Technology Advances Bleeding Control and Wound Healing

InCurA is revolutionizing MENA's medical landscape with AI-optimized, locally produced hemostatic solutions like CurASeal, bridging the gap between innovation and accessibility while reducing reliance on global imports.

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