Intellectual Property Rights And The Life Science Industries: Past, Present And Future (2Nd Edition) - Hardcover

Graham Dutfield (University Of Leeds; UK)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 9812832270 ISBN 13: 9789812832276

Publisher: World Scientific Publishing, 2009

Synopsis

This book is a highly readable and entertaining account of the co-evolution of the patent system and the life science industries since the mid-19th century. The pharmaceutical industries have their origins in advances in synthetic chemistry and in natural products research. Both approaches to drug discovery and business have shaped patent law, as have the lobbying activities of the firms involved and their supporters in the legal profession. In turn, patent law has impacted on the life science industries. Compared to the first edition, which told this story for the first time, the present edition focuses more on specific businesses, products and technologies, including Bayer, Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, aspirin, penicillin, monoclonal antibodies and polymerase chain reaction. Another difference is that this second edition also looks into the future, addressing new areas such as systems biology, stem cell research, and synthetic biology, which promises to enable scientists to invent life forms from scratch.

About this title

Review

Professor Dutfield's book well deserves an updated edition. Everybody who knows about intellectual property rights except those with a vested interest in keeping them as they are accepts that the system is a mess, and is not doing what it is meant to. He shows with clarity and in detail how this has come about in the life sciences through legislation shaped by interests more than by any vision of the public good. Keynes believed that soon or late, it is ideas rather than vested interests, that are dangerous for good or ill . Intellecual Property Rights and the Life Science Industries is a valuable reinforcement to the ideas side in this particular battle. --Professor William Kingston (Trinity College Dublin)

No one studying or thinking about patent issues and the biological sciences can afford not to read Dutifield's ridiculously erudite and comprehensive look at the subject. --Professor Paul J Herald, Allen Post Professor (University of Georgia)

wonderfully informative, insightful, and very readable chronicle. Refreshingly candid, witty, and balanced, I highly recommend it to anyone seeking a broad-based, global perspective on how we got to where we are in life sciences patenting and where we are likely to be headed in the rapidly approaching future. --Professor Margo A Bagley (University of Virginia School of Law)

Edition details

• Publisher: World Scientific Publishing
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9812832270
• ISBN 13: 9789812832276
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 428