Recent news
February 2011
Public sector makes significant contributions to health research, study finds
February 10, 2011 -- A new study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that the public sector—including US Government agencies, academic institutions, and nonprofit groups—has a more immediate effect on improving public health than previously realized. Study authors identified new drugs and vaccines approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and classified them according to their therapeutic category and potential effects. The researchers found that during the past 30 years, 153 new FDA-approved drugs, vaccines, or new indications for existing drugs were discovered through research carried out by public sector institutions. In addition, 66 of 348 applications given priority review originated in nonprofit facilities.
The study illustrates the success of US policies aimed at encouraging public institutions to engage in product development and basic research, the authors said. Such policies include more aggressive pursuit of patents and licensing agreements with drug and device companies.
"We hope our research will help inform the amplified conversation taking place around innovation policy in the US and abroad," said co-author Jonathan Jensen, MBA, director, business development, technology development at Boston University. "The factors involved in bringing a single one of these drugs to market are complex. With a more comprehensive understanding of the contribution of the public sector to the development of FDA approved drugs, as our work attempts to establish, one can better appreciate and further study the factors involved in the transfer of knowledge from the public to the private sector," he added.
