About Me
I am currently working as a lecturer/assistant professor (tenured) at Maynooth University in the Greater Dublin Area in Ireland.
Workshop on Medical Innovation and Research Visit in Gothenburg
It was great to be back in Gothenburg last week. I visited the U-GOT KIES centre to work with Maureen McKelvey and Viktor Ström. After two years of remote interactions, I really enjoyed meeting friends and colleagues during the 11th Annual Workshop on Medical Innovation which was co-hosted by AstraZeneca. It was my pleasure to moderate the panel discussion on “Reusing Drug Compounds – Scientific and Managerial Perspectives” and to present a joint project with my colleague Marvin Hanisch on “The Specialist’s Dilemma: How Specialization Inhibits Reactivity and Innovation Responsiveness in a Crisis.” I am looking forward to working on […]
What Viagra tells us about sustainability and repurposing
Have you ever thought how existing innovations could be used to solve new problems? My recent article in RTÉ Brainstorm will tell you more…
Which concerns arise when new medications are tested in developing countries? – New book chapter
Low- and middle-income countries are increasingly selected as locations for international clinical trials to tests the safety and efficacy of new drug candidates. But what are the consequences of this development for these countries? In my new book chapter, I discuss the extant literature related to this question and identify the three main —partially interrelated— concerns: a lack of contribution to building up local innovation capacity, a lack of local regulatory capacity, and the prevalence of questionable clinical research practices and fraud. Long-term capacity-building efforts of local researchers and regulators is a priority to address these concerns.
Waiving intellectual property rights: Boom or bust for medical innovation?
Should we waive intellectual property rights to fight COVID-19? And what might be the consequences for medical innovation if we do so? In my recently published Feature in Drug Discovery Today, I reflect on the consequences for innovative entrepreneurial companies, the incentives to innovate, and the consequences for international knowledge flows to low- and middle-income countries. I conclude that waiving intellectual property rights – such as patents – reduces opportunities for young, entrepreneurial companies to attract sufficient funding for developing medical innovations. Moreover, low- and middle-income countries might suffer reduced knowledge inflows in the absence of intellectual property rights which […]
Special issue call: “Rethinking Medical Innovation: Organizing R&D, Responding to Crisis, Delivering Health Services”
I am delighted to be one of the guest editors of the Special Issue on “Rethinking Medical Innovation: Organizing R&D, Responding to Crisis, Delivering Health Services” in Innovation: Organization & Management. My co-guest editors Magnus Gulbrandsen (University of Oslo), Maureen McKelvey (University of Gothenburg), and Fiona Miller (University of Toronto) and I are looking for contributions to one of the following themes: Theme 1: The Changing Business Organization of Medical Innovation and R&D Theme 2: Responding to Crisis with Medical Innovation Theme 3: Innovation Policies for Medical Innovation Theme 4: Medical Innovation and Delivery of Care Around Hospitals and Patients The […]
New Publication: What can we learn from COVID-19 drug and vaccine development?
In a recent study published in R&D Management, my co-author Marvin Hanisch (University of Groningen) and I examine the development of drugs and vaccines in response to COVID-19 using data on 2,456 clinical trials that were conducted between December 2019 and July 2020. Some unexpected results came to light. Especially early in the pandemic, most clinical trials focused on testing already existing drugs against COVID-19 (so-called “drug repurposing”). Much of this re-purposing research focuses on a small number of drugs indicates a lack of coordination and information sharing between researchers and an inefficient use of resources. We also found that that […]
New publication: Exploring network dynamics in science: the formation of ties to knowledge translators in clinical research
In our recent publication in the Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Maureen McKelvey (University of Gothenburg), Pablo D’Este (INGENIO), and myself study which mechanisms drive the formation of new collaborative relations to knowledge translators – i.e., investigators that have basic and clinical research knowledge – in clinical trials. Our results indicate that the network of clinical trial investigators remains fragmented over time. This fragmentation is problematic as it limits opportunities for knowledge transfer which may negatively influence knowledge generation and innovation based on clinical research. With respect to the mechanisms that drive tie formation, we find that similarity in terms of […]