February 8, 2008. GWU & KEI Workshop on Medical Innovation Prize Fund

Friday, 25 January 2008

The GWU-KEI workshop on the Medical Innovation Prize Fund will be a one-day meeting held on February 8, 2008 at the Law School of George Washington University (GWU), co-sponsored by GWU Law School and Knowledge Ecology International (KEI). The workshop will be open to the public and with no fee to attend.

The objective of this workshop is to bring together policy makers and experts to debate proposals to use prizes rather than exclusive marketing rights as the main mechanism to stimulate private investments in medical R&D, with a special focus on Senator Sanders Bill, S.2210 the Medical Innovation Prize Fund Act of 2007. 

A description of the bill, links to the text, and views of 16 experts are available here .

At present, the agenda (5Feb08) looks like this:

Agenda GWU – KEI Workshop on Prizes

Working title:  Medical Innovation Prize Fund:  New paradigm for drug development, or unworkable scheme?

Date of Workshop: February 8, 2008

Venue: George Washington University Law School / L101 – Jacob Burns Moot Court Map
Ground Floor 2000 H Street NW (nearest metro: Foggy Bottom).

 

9:00 AM  –  Introduction
          
       John Duffy (GWU/Bio) and James Love (KEI/Bio )

9:30 AM to 11:00 AM  – Medical Innovation Prizes and the Proposed Medical Innovation Prize Fund Act, S.2210

        Moderator: Christopher Murray, Senior Counsel, Consumer Union

        David Reynolds, Senior Health Policy Advisor, Senator Sanders (I-VT)
        Ed Mierzwinski, Consumer Program Director, U.S. PIRG (Bio )
        John Erickson, CEO, Sequoia Pharmaceuticals (Bio)
        Philip S. Johnson, Chief Patent Counsel, Johnson and Johnson

11 AM to 11:15 AM – break
 
11:15 AM  to 1 PM  – Valuation of Prizes for drug development

        Moderator: Todd Stein, Representative Tom Allen (D-ME)

        Aidan Hollis, University of Calgary (Bio) Problems & possibilities in making prizes depend on health impact
        Alex Tabarrok, George Mason University (Bio)
        James Love, Director, Knowledge Ecology International (Bio)
        John E. Calfee, Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute (Bio)
 

1 PM to 2 PM – Lunch (by invitation)

2 PM to 3:30 PM  – Management of Prizes

        Moderator:  Lindsay McAllister, Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)

        Michael Abramowicz, George Washington University (Bio)
        Sean Flynn, American University (Bio), "TRIPS and Prizes"
        Merrill Goozner, Center for Science in the Public Interest (Bio), "How will prizes impact innovation?"
        Steve Merrill, Executive Director, NAS STEP Board (Bio), "Lessons from innovation prizes in other fields"

3:30 PM to 3:45 PM – Break
                
3.45 PM    – Open Discussion, For and Against the Medical Innovation Prize Fund

        Moderators: John F. Duffy, GWU and James Love, KEI
       
5:30 PM    –  Closing remarks

 

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