Workshop: Patents, the Public Interest and Two New Medical Technologies: CRISPR and CAR T

Workshop: Patents, the Public Interest and Two New Medical Technologies: Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR), Chimeric Antigen Receptors (CAR) technologies

On September 15th, 2017, Knowledge Ecology International will be hosting a workshop on: “Patents, the Public Interest and Two New Medical Technologies: CRISPR and CAR T.”

If you are unable to attend in person, a livestream of the event will be available here

CRISPR related inventions include breakthrough technologies to modify genes, which have broad applications for innovations in medicine, agriculture and other fields.

CAR T therapies are an exciting new approach to treating cancer and other diseases, including previously incurable cancers.

Both technologies were developed with significant funding from the U.S. federal government.

There are controversies over the licensing of several CRISPR related inventions, and over the pricing of new CAR Treatments, including most recently the decision by Novartis to charge $475,000 for Kymriah, a CAR T treatment for leukemia.

The workshop will bring feature a diverse group of experts and stakeholders to discuss the public policy challenges appropriate governance of CRISPR and CAR T’s intellectual property.

Date: Friday, September 15, 2017
Location: Kaiser Permanente Center for Total Health, 700 Second St. NE (near Union Station), Washington, DC 20002

To Register: use this form.

A PDF version of the program is available here

Agenda

10:30 to 10:50 AM: Registration, coffee
10:50 to 11:00 AM: Welcome and opening remarks


11:00 AM to 1:00 PM: Panel one: CRISPR

Moderator: William New, Intellectual Property Watch

Discussion


1:00 to 2:00 PM: Lunch


2:15 PM to 3:45 PM: Panel two: CAR T

Moderator: Ophira Ginsburg, MD

Robert Weissman, President, Public Citizen.

Discussion


4:00 PM to 5:15 PM: Panel three: Policy Challenges

Moderator: Sarah Karlin-Smith, Politico

  • Alicia Mundy, United States Senate.
  • Robert Weissman, President, Public Citizen
  • James Love, Director of Knowledge Ecology International.
  • Jorge Contreras, Professor, College of Law at the University of Utah.

Discussion

Speaker Bios

Jorge Contreras is a Professor at the College of Law at the University of Utah. He teaches in the areas of intellectual property, law and science, and property law, and serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Utah Genome Project.

Dr. Ophira Ginsburg is medical oncologist with expertise in cancer genetics, epidemiology, prevention, and screening. Her research spans more than a decade in global cancer control and women’s health equity.

Anna Kaltenboeck is the Program Director and Senior Health Economist, Center for Health Policy and Outcomes at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Her work focuses on the development and application of value-based pricing methods, as well as policies that foster rational and sustainable drug pricing.

Sarah Karlin-Smith is a health care reporter with Politico, specializing in coverage of the policy and politics affecting the drug industry. In 2014, she was selected as an Association of Health Care Journalists – National Library of Medicine fellow.

Marge Kilkelly, United States Senate. She previously served 12 years in the Maine State Legislature as a Representative and a Senator, and worked for the Council of State Governments and the New England Farmers Union.

James Love is the Director of Knowledge Ecology International.

David Mitchell is the President and Founder of Patients for Affordable Drugs. He is a patient with multiple myeloma, and has 40 years of experience working on health care and public health policy.

Alicia Mundy, United States Senate. She is also an award winning author and reporter on healthcare and the pharmaceutical industry.

Kristin Neuman is the Executive Director of Biotechnology Licensing at MPEG LA, where she is leading the formation of a patent pool for CRISPR.

William New is the editor of Intellectual Property Watch. He is an accredited journalist at the World Trade Organization and the United Nations, and a member of the Swiss press association Impressum, the Club de la Presse Suisse, and the Association of Correspondents Accredited to the United Nations (ACANU) in Geneva.

Issi Rozen is the Chief Business Officer at the Broad Institute of Harvard & MIT. At the Broad Institute he is responsible for developing innovative scientific and business collaborations with industry partners, and for licensing the institute’s intellectual property portfolio.

Jacob Sherkow is an Associate Professor of Law at the Innovation Center for Law and Technology, New York Law School, where he teaches a variety of courses related to intellectual property.

Dr. Diane Singhroy is the Scientific and Technical Advisor at Knowledge Ecology International. Dr. Singhroy has a PhD in Immunovirology from McGill University in Montreal.

Robert Weissman is president of Public Citizen, a national nonprofit consumer advocacy organization. He is an expert on economics, health care, trade and globalization, intellectual property and regulatory policy, and issues related to financial accountability and corporate responsibility.

If you are unable to attend in person, a livestream of the event will be available here