AAU and APLU Commitment to Ensuring Global Access to Medical Advances

Letter from Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) to House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) and House Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers (R-KY) urging them to reconsider their opposition to a provision of the patent reform legislation (H.R. 1249) that bars diversion for other purposes of the fees collected by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for processing of patents.

Although BIO and the undersigned higher education associations held different views on the Stanford v. Roche case, the organizations are united in the desire to ensure that the U.S. technology transfer system continues to generate these public benefits through the robust provisions of the Bayh-Dole statute. We are committed to working together in light of the Supreme Court’s decision to ensure the continued vibrancy of public-private partnerships and success of our shared objectives.

 A letter drafted by the Department of Commerce National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entreprenuership (NACIE) and signed by university presidents, AAU, and APLU committing them to develop strategies to aid in regional and national economic growth.

 A group of five higher education associations, including AAU, submitted comments to the Department of Commerce on April 1 regarding the Administration's Strategy for American Innovation. 

 Basic information on university technology transfer.

On behalf of research universities, affiliated research institutions, medical colleges, and the higher education community represented by our five associations, we appreciate the opportunity to comment on the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the National Economic Council (NEC) March 26, 2010 Federal Register request for information (RFI) issued concerning the commercialization of university technology and proof of concept centers (POCCs). Our associations believe strongly that university research and education benefit society at large. Therefore, supporting and enhancing technology commercialization is essential to universities’ public mission and their societal responsibility. At the same time, increased commercialization must not come at the expense of our universities’ primary education, research, and public service missions..

“[F]ederal support accounts for over half of the research conducted at colleges and universities in the United States.” Even according to conservative estimates, university patent licensing has produced astounding economic benefits – from 1996 to 2007, university licensing contributed an estimated $187 billion to U.S. gross domestic product, achieved a $457 billion impact on U.S. gross industrial output, and created 279,000 new jobs. The Bayh-Dole Act, 35 U.S.C. §§ 200-212, which provides the framework for commercialization of federally funded research at universities, stands as one of the most effective statutes ever passed by Congress. One commentator called the Act “[p]ossibly the most inspired piece of legislation to be enacted in America over the past half-century” and suggested that “[m]ore than anything, this single policy measure helped to reverse America’s precipitous slide into industrial irrelevance.."

On behalf of the Association of American Universities, the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, the Council on Governmental Relations, and the Association of American Medical Colleges, we are writing to thank the subcommittee for its interest in and attention to the role of universities in contributing to U.S. economic competitiveness, and for the recent hearing, “The Bayh-Dole Act (P.L. 96-517): the Next 25 Years.."

I am here to offer comments on behalf of AAU, Johns Hopkins and the academic research community on the pending petition for the government to exercise so-called “march-in” authority for Norvir, an HIV treatment drug manufactured by Abbott Laboratories. The petitioners claim that Abbott Labs is charging too much for this life-saving prescription drug. They further assert that the government should exercise authority provided in the Bayh-Dole Act to march in and take title to the patent for Norvir… or license it to other companies that presumably would offer an identical drug at a lower price. Bayh-Dole sets out how federally funded research inventions may be transferred to the private sector for further development and commercialization. The law was written to address a serious problem in our national research and development enterprise. Before its passage… fewer than five percent of the patents produced with government funding were making their way into the marketplace where they could contribute to the public good..

Testimony of E. Jonathan Soderstrom, Ph.D., Managing Director, Office of Cooperative Research, Yale University, before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Subcommittee on Health, July 10, 2003

Testimony of Andrew Neighbour, Ph.D., Associate Vice Chancellor for Research,The University of California, Los Angeles, before the House of Representatives, Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Health, July 10, 2003