Today, TACD publishes a new resolution on delinking the incentives to invest in biomedical R&D from the prices of products and services.

There is a disconnect between incentives to stimulate biomedical innovation and the need for affordable access to new technologies. Incentives are often based upon the grant of private monopolies on inventions and products, thereby ignoring public funding of biomedical research as a public good. In other cases, the controlling of costs is based upon withholding coverage for products that are too expensive or require patients to co-fund. When governments consider ending monopolies, the companies that develop or own the intellectual property rights object on the grounds that the cost savings will come at the expense of innovation.

TACD’s resolution provides a number of recommendations to policymakers. These include:

– acknowledging that incentives can be provided without granting monopolies and begin to propose and consider the feasibility of mechanisms that provide such non-monopoly incentives;

– identifying the means of financing non-monopoly incentives; and

– setting global norms to address the appropriate sharing of R&D funding costs as a public good

To this end, TACD urges governments to support discussions at the World Health Organization and consider chapters in trade agreements to expand and enhance the supply of public goods.

Read the full Resolution here.