Uncategorized – Dr. Bastian Rake

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 […]

Paper Presented at the 18th Schumpeter Society Conference

Recently I presented the project “Geography of authorship: How geography shapes authorship attribution in global team science” at the 18th Conference of the International Joseph A. Schumpeter Society. The conference was held online. The paper is a joint research project with Jarno Hoekman (Utrecht University). In this project we study the conditions under which contributions of local scientific research teams in multi-locational clinical research projects result in authorship attribution to these teams on publications linked to these clinical research projects.

Pandemic turns spotlight on medical innovation – News items featuring my research

I am delighted to announce that my research around medical and bio-pharmaceutical innovation during the COVID-19 pandemic has been featured by two news items. Maynooth University’s Spotlight on Research provides an accessible summary of my joint work with Marvin Hanisch on re-purposing and innovation during the pandemic that has recently been published in R&D Management. The University of Gothenburg’s news item “Pandemic turns spotlight on medical innovation” sheds some light on the work that my colleagues and I are doing in the broad area of medical innovation and how important medical innovation is within and beyond the current COVID-19 situation.

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 […]

Why Big Pharma did not respond to COVID-19? – Paid undergraduate summer research opportunity available

Why Big Pharma did not respond to COVID-19? – Paid undergraduate summer research opportunity available I would like to make you aware of the Summer Programme For Undergraduate Research (SPUR). SPUR is a six week active research based and paid (€ 1,500, tax free) experiential learning programme which offers you the opportunity to work together with a faculty mentor on a real research project. This is an excellent opportunity to get insights into management research and develop skills that make you stand out from your peers. SPUR is open to all pre-final year UG students. I am mentoring a student […]

Eu-SPRI 2021 track on “Rethinking medical innovation in times of crises: organization, delivery and company responses”

Maureen McKelvey, Magnus Gulbrandsen, and I are the convenors of the paper track on “Rethinking medical innovation in times of crises: organization, delivery and company responses” at the Eu-SPRI 2021 in Oslo. We invite submissions studying the topic of “Rethinking Medical Innovation in Times of Crisis” in a variety of contexts and encourage submissions that go beyond immediate crisis response to study the medium- and long-term impact of a crisis. To reach this goal, we have developed three broader themes of primary interest for this track. Submissions must be related to one or more of these themes, but that we […]

Workshop on medical innovation to overcome social and economic challenges

The 2020 edition of the annual Workshop on Medical Innovation and Healthcare (WOMI) and was co-organized by myself and by Ethan Gifford and Maureen McKelvey, University of Gothenburg and GOT KIES. In this year’s digital Workshop more than 40 participants from many different universities and countries discussed urgent questions, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and other health challenges, and how medical innovation can help society to tackle these challenges. Further information about the Workshop and the researchers engaged in the WOMI community can be found on the community’s website.

Can contact tracing apps stop the pandemic?

My recent post in the Business&Society blog presents a few reflections on the diffusion of contact tracing apps. I argue that contact tracing apps must provide clear benefits that outweigh the cost of giving up control over sensitive information. However, avoiding a decline in the number of users over time will be challenging, particularly if other measures to keep the virus under control are successful and the individual benefits become less clear.