tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17514931450661141082024-03-01T16:11:58.077-06:00LEXVIVOgenes, demes, and memesAndrew W. Torrancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00031068065400613238noreply@blogger.comBlogger546125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1751493145066114108.post-9091163962514819702023-12-08T20:42:00.001-06:002023-12-08T20:48:06.718-06:00After Casgevy Follows A Genome Editing Bevy<p>Today, December 8, 2023, <a href="https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-approves-first-gene-therapies-treat-patients-sickle-cell-disease" target="_blank">the United States Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") emulated its British equivalent, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, by approving the CRISPR/Cas9-based therapy <i>Casgevy</i>, a gene editing treatment for sickle cell disease ("SCD").</a> <a href="http://www.lexvivo.com/2023/11/medicines-crispr-focus.html" target="_blank">As it did in the United Kingdom</a>, this approval marks a milestone in therapeutic history in the United States. <a href="https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-approves-first-gene-therapies-treat-patients-sickle-cell-disease" target="_blank">Here is how the FDA described Casgevy:</a></p><p></p><blockquote><p>Casgevy, a cell-based gene therapy, is approved for the treatment of sickle cell disease in patients 12 years of age and older with recurrent vaso-occlusive crises. Casgevy is the first FDA-approved therapy utilizing CRISPR/Cas9, a type of genome editing technology. Patients’ hematopoietic (blood) stem cells are modified by genome editing using CRISPR/Cas9 technology.</p><p>CRISPR/Cas9 can be directed to cut DNA in targeted areas, enabling the ability to accurately edit (remove, add, or replace) DNA where it was cut. The modified blood stem cells are transplanted back into the patient where they engraft (attach and multiply) within the bone marrow and increase the production of fetal hemoglobin (HbF), a type of hemoglobin that facilitates oxygen delivery. In patients with sickle cell disease, increased levels of HbF prevent the sickling of red blood cells.</p></blockquote><p></p><p><a href="https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-approves-first-gene-therapies-treat-patients-sickle-cell-disease" target="_blank">The FDA was impressed by the strong performance of Casgevy in clinical trials:</a></p><p></p><blockquote><p>The safety and effectiveness of Casgevy were evaluated in an ongoing single-arm, multi-center trial in adult and adolescent patients with SCD. Patients had a history of at least two protocol-defined severe VOCs during each of the two years prior to screening. The primary efficacy outcome was freedom from severe VOC episodes for at least 12 consecutive months during the 24-month follow-up period. A total of 44 patients were treated with Casgevy. Of the 31 patients with sufficient follow-up time to be evaluable, 29 (93.5%) achieved this outcome. All treated patients achieved successful engraftment with no patients experiencing graft failure or graft rejection. </p><p>The most common side effects were low levels of platelets and white blood cells, mouth sores, nausea, musculoskeletal pain, abdominal pain, vomiting, febrile neutropenia (fever and low white blood cell count), headache and itching.</p></blockquote><p></p><p><a href="https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-approves-first-gene-therapies-treat-patients-sickle-cell-disease" target="_blank">The FDA granted the license for Casgevy to biotechnology firm, Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc..</a> However, many other biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies are waiting in the line for the FDA to grant approval to their genome editing therapies. </p>Andrew W. Torrancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00031068065400613238noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1751493145066114108.post-90720748086962719412023-11-20T17:40:00.001-06:002023-11-20T23:03:09.944-06:00Clonan the Barbarian and the Mastiff Landslide<p> Argentina voted overwhelmingly <a href="https://apnews.com/article/javier-milei-profile-argentina-election-82488d49cca5aee10d4b911bde530922" target="_blank">on November 19, 2023, for Javier Milei to become its next president.</a> President Milei has <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javier_Milei" target="_blank">a fascinating biography, which includes having played goalie for the <i>Club Atlético Chacarita</i> junior team, sung for the <i>Rolling Stones</i> cover band <i>Everest</i>, taught economics in universities for more than two decades, and hosted his own radio show.</a> Even more fascinating, however, are his dogs. As of his election as president, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javier_Milei" target="_blank">he had five English Mastiffs</a>. Not only are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/19/world/americas/argentina-election-javier-milei.html" target="_blank">four named for Milei's favourite three economists (that is, <i>Milton</i> Friedman, <i>Murray</i> Rothbard, and <i>Robert</i> <i>Lucas</i>), they are also reputed to be clones of his first English Mastiff, Conan.</a></p><p>It may or may not be true that all politicians are alike. However, Milei's English Mastiffs are all extremely similar, which is unsurprising given their apparent provenance as clones.<br /></p>Andrew W. Torrancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00031068065400613238noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1751493145066114108.post-88221658407761915282023-11-16T23:40:00.002-06:002023-11-16T23:40:16.337-06:00Medicine's CRISPR Focus<p> The United Kingdom Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency ("MHRA") made history today when it approved the medicine "Casgevy" for the treatment of sickle-cell disease and transfusion-dependent β-thalassemia in patients aged 12 and older. <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/mhra-authorises-world-first-gene-therapy-that-aims-to-cure-sickle-cell-disease-and-transfusion-dependent-thalassemia">As the MHRA announced in a press release,</a></p><p></p><blockquote><p>Casgevy is the first medicine to be licensed that uses the innovative gene-editing tool CRISPR, for which its inventors were awarded the Nobel Prize in 2020. </p><p>Both sickle cell disease and β-thalassemia are genetic conditions caused by errors in the genes for haemoglobin, which is used by red blood cells to carry oxygen around the body. Sickle cell disease is particularly common in people with an African or Caribbean family background. β-thalassemia mainly affects people of Mediterranean, south Asian, southeast Asian and Middle Eastern origin. </p><p>In people with sickle cell disease, this genetic error can lead to attacks of very severe pain, serious and life-threatening infections, and anaemia (whereby your body has difficulty carrying oxygen). </p><p>In people with β-thalassaemia, it can lead to severe anaemia. Patients often need a blood transfusion every 3 to 5 weeks, and injections and medicines throughout their lives. </p><p>Casgevy is designed to work by editing the faulty gene in a patient’s bone marrow stem cells so that the body produces functioning haemoglobin. To do this, stem cells are taken out of bone marrow, edited in a laboratory and then infused back into the patient after which the results have the potential to be life-long. </p></blockquote><p></p><p>Here's how Casgevy, developed by Vertex Pharmaceuticals in Boston, Massachusetts, and CRISPR Therapeutics in Zug, Switzerland, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/mhra-authorises-world-first-gene-therapy-that-aims-to-cure-sickle-cell-disease-and-transfusion-dependent-thalassemia">works:</a></p><p></p><blockquote>Casgevy is administered by taking stem cells out of a patient’s bone marrow and editing a gene in the cells in a laboratory. Patients must then undergo conditioning treatment to prepare the bone marrow before the modified cells are infused back into the patient. After that, patients may need to spend at least a month in a hospital facility while the treated cells take up residence in the bone marrow and start to make red blood cells with the stable form of haemoglobin.</blockquote><p></p><p>Sickle-cell disease and transfusion-dependent β-thalassemia are painful and debilitating conditions that disproportionately afflict the poor. Casgevy marks a landmark, heralding the beginning of CRISPR-based therapeutics approved for the market, and, more importantly, for the treatment of patients. </p>Andrew W. Torrancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00031068065400613238noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1751493145066114108.post-12348673878756524022022-11-20T23:37:00.004-06:002022-11-20T23:45:07.712-06:00COPs And Robbers<p> The 27th Conference of the Parties ("COP 27") to the Framework Convention on Climate Change ("FCCC") wrapped up several days late, on November 20, 2022, and myriad dollars short of those needed to limit global warning to 1.5°C. Buried within its dense diplomatic verbiage, the "<a href="https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/cp2022_L19_adv.pdf" target="_blank">Draft decision</a>" negotiated at COP 27 features two notable statements. First, the goal of limiting global mean temperature rise to 1.5 °C remains squishy, with the parties not committing, but "resolv[ing] to pursue further efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C" (<a href="https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/cp2022_L19_adv.pdf" target="_blank">Draft decision, I(7)</a>). Second, <a href="https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/cp2022_L19_adv.pdf" target="_blank">section VI of the Draft decision</a>, entitled "Loss and damage", contemplates <i>de facto</i> liability by rich countries for damages caused to poorer countries by the effects of climate change. To a betting person, the odds the world will exceed the "limit" of 1.5 °C would now seem to have shortened. Meanwhile, the odds rich countries will come anywhere close to committing the financial resources necessary to meet the spirit of the new "loss and damage" obligation will surely start off as very long.</p><p>There is a silver lining to the <a href="https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/cp2022_L19_adv.pdf" target="_blank">Draft decision reached at COP 27</a>: once the 400 or so private jets that flew climate delegates and lobbyists to the negotiations depart, the carbon footprint of the host city, Sharm el-Sheikh, is likely to settle back down to its usual level.</p>Andrew W. Torrancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00031068065400613238noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1751493145066114108.post-43239327953827058802022-08-05T22:48:00.003-05:002022-08-05T22:48:50.559-05:00ALII'm deeply honoured <a href="#">to have been elected a member of the American Law Institute ("ALI") in July 2022.</a> I look forward to doing my best to contribute to the important mission of this wonderful organization: <a href="https://www.ali.org/about-ali/how-institute-works/" target="_blank">“to promote the clarification and simplification of the law and its better adaptation to social needs, to secure the better administration of justice, and to encourage and carry on scholarly and scientific legal work.”</a>Andrew W. Torrancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00031068065400613238noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1751493145066114108.post-63201518300865124962022-07-25T23:45:00.006-05:002022-07-25T23:45:55.812-05:00Twin Royalties Paradox<p> The <a href="https://www.scc-csc.ca/home-accueil/index-eng.aspx" target="_blank">Supreme Court of Canada</a> clarified <a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-42/Index.html" target="_blank">the Canadian Copyright Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42)</a> when it rendered <a href="https://decisions.scc-csc.ca/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/19441/index.do" target="_blank">its judgment in <i>Society of Composers et al. v. Entertainment Software Association</i> on July 15, 2022</a>. At issue was whether the Copyright Act added a new legal right for authors by amending §3(1)(f), which grants to authors the right "to communicate the work to the public by telecommunication", when the Canadian Parliament attempted to incorporate Article 8 of the <i><a href="https://wipolex.wipo.int/en/text/295157" target="_blank">WIPO Copyright Treaty</a></i> into the Copyright Act. The Copyright Board of Canada had earlier ruled that §2.4(1.1) had modified §3(1)(f) in such a way as to require that users of works of authorship "needed to pay two royalties to access works online - a royalty for "making works available" and an additional royalty when the work was actually downloaded or streamed." The Federal Court of Appeal overturned the Copyright Board, holding that there is no independent royalty simply for making a work available. The Supreme Court broadly agreed, explaining,</p><p></p><blockquote>If a work is downloaded or made available for downloading, §3(1)(f) is not engaged. If a work is made available for streaming and later streamed, §3(1)(f) is only engaged once.</blockquote><p></p><p>In addition to its decision finding no additional "making available" royalty, the Supreme Court decided to other issues. One involved the appropriate standard of review. The other considered how international treaties, such as the <i><a href="https://wipolex.wipo.int/en/text/295157" target="_blank">WIPO Copyright Treaty</a></i>, should contribute to the interpretation of statutory provisions intended to implement such treaties into national law. Although the Supreme Court noted that "A treaty should be considered when interpreting statutes that purport to implement the treaty", and that "There is no need to find textual ambiguity in a statute before considering the treaty", a court must "intepret what the legislature (federally or provincially) has enacted and not subordinate this to what federal executive has agreed to internationally." In short, "It is always the domestic statute that governs".</p><p>Just as <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/distributed-cognition-in-classical-antiquity/one-soul-in-two-bodies-distributed-cognition-and-ancient-greek-friendship/FE103BF292014D3211B7698D8FB23992" target="_blank">Aristotle may have observed that a friend is "One soul dwelling in two bodies"</a>, <a href="https://decisions.scc-csc.ca/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/19441/index.do" target="_blank"><i>Society of Composers et al. v. Entertainment Software Association</i></a> suggests that online copyright may be one royalty dwelling in two legal rights.</p>Andrew W. Torrancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00031068065400613238noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1751493145066114108.post-75422034611526551772022-07-02T11:02:00.002-05:002022-07-02T11:02:31.512-05:00Fair ShareMy brilliant and creative colleagues, <a href="https://www.ics.uci.edu/~wmt/" target="_blank">Bill Tomlinson</a>, <a href="https://www.informatics.uci.edu/explore/faculty-profiles/bonnie-nardi/" target="_blank">Bonnie Nardi</a>, <a href="https://faculty.sites.uci.edu/dstokols/" target="_blank">Daniel Stokols</a>, <a href="https://ag.purdue.edu/digital-ag-resources/person/ankita-raturi/" target="_blank">Ankita Raturi</a>, and I are pleased <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4152077" target="_blank">our article, "Returning ecological wealth to nonhuman species through design: the case for ecosystemas", has been published in <i>Ecology and Society</i> (27(2): 34).</a> <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4152077" target="_blank">Here is the abstract:</a><div class="page" title="Page 1"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column">
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</div><div><br /></div><div><blockquote>Human population and energy use have increased rapidly in recent centuries. This growth has relied on <i>Homo sapiens</i> appropriating ecosystem services previously shared more equitably with many other species. Envisioning this process as a transfer of ecological wealth among species provides a framework within which to examine human activities. We use this framework to critique the broad endeavor of design, and in particular human-computer interaction design, as it has been pursued by human civilization over the past several decades. We offer a conceptual tool, the ecosystema, that may help enable design processes to support the redistribution of ecological wealth to nonhuman species. The ecosystema is based on the concept of personas: distilled representations of particular user groups that are a key part of many design processes. The ecosystema construct is analogous to a persona, but at the level of an entire ecosystem rather than of a particular human population. This construct could help discern ecosystem level impacts and enable them to influence design processes more effectively. Ecosystemas also may afford greater leverage for effectively managing current environmental crises than existing anthropocentric design approaches.</blockquote></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4152077" target="_blank">Our article is available as a free PDF here.</a></div>Andrew W. Torrancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00031068065400613238noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1751493145066114108.post-9940380879495455452022-06-18T12:14:00.001-05:002022-06-18T12:14:36.320-05:00Biotechnology Patent Law Top Ten Of 2020<p>Brilliant legal eagle, <a href="https://www.mbhb.com/people/kevin-e-noonan/" target="_blank">Kevin Noonan,</a> and I collaborate each year on an article covering what we consider to be the top ten United States biotechnology patent law judicial decisions of that year. Our article, "<a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4104541" target="_blank">Biotechnology Patent Law Top Ten of 2020: Valeant Victorious, Falling Eagle, and Successful Slayback</a>", was recently published in the <a href="https://law.tamu.edu/current-students/academics/law-journals/journal-of-property-law" target="_blank"><i>Texas A & M Journal of Property Law</i></a> (citation: 8 Tex. A&M J. Prop. L. 409-472 (2022)). <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4104541" target="_blank">Download the article here for free.</a> Here is the <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4104541" target="_blank">abstract</a>:</p><p></p><blockquote>One of the most famous trilogies ever
published ends with the hero, Frodo the hobbit, sailing aboard an elven
ship from the Grey Havens of Middle Earth to the Undying Lands in the
west. Despite this being the third in a series of “Biotechnology Patent
Law Top Ten” articles, in this trilogy the world of biotechnology patent
law has no leading hero, no ultimate destination, nor any final
resolution of issues.<br /><br />To the contrary, this exciting area of law
and technology continues to witness winners and losers in myriad battles
across a wide doctrinal theatre of legal war with no end in sight. It
is true that some in biotechnology view the uncertainty surrounding the
scope of patentable biotechnological subject matter under 35 U.S.C. §
101 as a metaphorical ring they wish the fires of Mount Doom could
destroy (or at least clarified by the United States Supreme Court).
Others consider the ongoing patent disputes between the University of
California, University of Vienna, and Emmanuelle Charpentier (often
referred to collectively as “CVC”) and the Broad Institute of MIT and
Harvard to be as consequential as the Battle of the Five Armies. We will
not even try to compare the endless Abbreviated New Drug Application
(“ANDA”) struggles between brand pharmaceutical companies and their
upstart generic drug firm rivals using a literary device derived from
The Lord of the Rings.3 Suffice it to say that biotechnology patent law
will continue to vigorously evolve, and we plan to continue our coverage
of its evolution beyond the current trilogy of Biotechnology Patent Law
Top Tens.<br /><br />As in previous years, we admit it was difficult to
choose precisely ten top biotechnology patent law decisions. There are
certainly otherswe did not include that warrant close attention for
their reasonings, rules, and future implications. Nevertheless, both we
and our readers can count, so we have done our best to select what we
consider to be the top ten biotechnology patent law decisions of 2020.
We discuss these decisions [in the article].</blockquote><p></p><p>To avoid falling behind, consider reading the <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4104541" target="_blank">2020 Top Ten</a> promptly, because publication of our Biotechnology Patent Law Top Ten of 2021 is imminent. </p><p></p>
<p></p>Andrew W. Torrancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00031068065400613238noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1751493145066114108.post-69013086699206465972022-03-05T00:30:00.004-06:002022-03-05T00:30:58.316-06:00Burke's Bees<p> The <a href="https://www.burkemuseum.org/" target="_blank">Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture</a> is a hidden gem in Seattle. Nestled in the northwesternmost corner of the <a href="https://www.washington.edu/" target="_blank">University of Washington</a> campus, right next to the <a href="https://www.law.uw.edu/" target="_blank">School of Law</a>, its collections and research efforts are both excellent. As Visiting Professor at the School of Law back in 2011, I would often cross the 100m to the Burke to explore its latest exhibits. The Burke has now assured its excellence by appointing the brilliant and inspiring bee expert <a href="https://www.burkemuseum.org/about/leadership" target="_blank">Dr. Gabriela Chavarria as Executive Director</a>.</p>Andrew W. Torrancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00031068065400613238noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1751493145066114108.post-55731657794838660132021-12-18T23:50:00.000-06:002021-12-18T23:50:00.369-06:00Omicron May Be O-Mega<p> Excellent as usual, <a href="https://www.bhattacharyyalab.org/" target="_blank">Dr. Roby Bhattacharyya, of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard</a> released his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7O96XC_QeI" target="_blank">"Broad COVID update: Omicron edition" on December 17, 2021</a>. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7O96XC_QeI" target="_blank">Here it is:</a></p><p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/B7O96XC_QeI" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><br /></p><p>The Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 may not be "micron" at all, but, rather, O<i>mega</i>. Let's hope a viral tidal wave is not on its way.</p>Andrew W. Torrancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00031068065400613238noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1751493145066114108.post-30479779331943280902021-12-03T22:49:00.000-06:002021-12-03T22:49:03.623-06:00Billion-Dollar Blueprints<p> In <a href="https://www.economist.com/business/2021/12/04/a-new-way-of-understanding-the-high-but-elusive-worth-of-intellectual-property" target="_blank">the December 4, 2021, issue of <i>The Economist</i>, there is a wonderful article featuring patent analytics firm, PatentVector</a><a href="https://www.economist.com/business/2021/12/04/a-new-way-of-understanding-the-high-but-elusive-worth-of-intellectual-property" target="_blank">, entitled "Billion-dollar blueprints - A new way of understanding the high but elusive worth of intellectual property".</a></p>Andrew W. Torrancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00031068065400613238noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1751493145066114108.post-6350562161839837712021-11-12T13:11:00.002-06:002021-11-12T13:11:44.324-06:00Patent Fish<p>Congratulations to <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/10/26/president-biden-announces-key-nominations-8/" target="_blank">Kathi Vidal for her nomination by President Joseph Biden to become Under Secretary for Intellectual Property and Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ("USPTO") at the Department of Commerce("USPTO")</a>. I would describe my former Fish & Richardson P.C. colleague as an obvious choice, I anticipate a smooth confirmation process, and I wish the Director-nominee best luck in determining the best mode to enable the <a href="https://www.uspto.gov/" target="_blank">USPTO</a> to promote the progress of useful arts.<br /></p>Andrew W. Torrancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00031068065400613238noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1751493145066114108.post-85148215843730026442021-09-29T15:48:00.000-05:002021-09-29T15:48:08.065-05:00Broad SARS-CoV-2 Update (September 27, 2021)<p><a href="https://www.broadinstitute.org/" target="_blank">Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard</a> physician-scientist <a href="https://www.bhattacharyyalab.org/" target="_blank">Dr. Roby Bahttacharyya</a> provided his latest <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfwTH1ORuJ0" target="_blank">definitive update on SARS-CoV-2 on September 27, 2021</a>:</p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UfwTH1ORuJ0" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>Andrew W. Torrancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00031068065400613238noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1751493145066114108.post-74377507815689154922021-09-06T22:06:00.000-05:002021-09-06T22:06:00.939-05:00Uncommonly Vital Innovation Commons<p>My brilliant colleagues, <a href="https://www.rmit.edu.au/contact/staff-contacts/academic-staff/p/potts-distinguished-professor-jason" target="_blank">Jason Potts (RMIT University)</a>, <a href="https://www.ip.mpg.de/en/persons/prof-dietmar-harhoff.html" target="_blank">Dietmar Harhoff (Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, and the Centre for Economic Policy Research ("CEPR")</a>, and <a href="https://evhippel.mit.edu/" target="_blank">Eric von Hippel (Massachusetts Institute of Technology ("MIT") - Sloan School of Management)</a>, and I have written an article entitled "<a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3915997" target="_blank">Social welfare gains from innovation commons: Theory, evidence, and policy implications</a>" on what we refer to as the "innovation commons". <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3915997" target="_blank">An early draft of our article is available for free download here.</a> <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3915997" target="_blank">Here is its abstract:</a></p><p></p><blockquote><p>Innovation commons – which we define as repositories of freely-accessible, “open source” innovation-related information and data - are a very significant resource for innovating and innovation-adopting firms and individuals: Availability of free data and information reduces the innovation-specific private or open investment required to make the next innovative advance. Despite the clear social welfare value of innovation commons under many conditions, academic innovation research and innovation policymaking have to date focused almost entirely on enhancing private incentives to innovate by enabling innovators to keep some types of innovation-related information at least temporarily apart from the commons, via intellectual property rights.</p><p>In this paper, our focus is squarely on innovation commons theory, evidence, and policy implications. We first discuss the varying nature of and contents of innovation commons extant today. We summarize what is known about their functioning, their scale, the value they provide to innovators and to general social welfare, and the mechanisms by which this is accomplished. Perhaps somewhat counterintuitively, and with the important exception of major digital platform firms, we find that many who develop innovation-related information at private cost have private economic incentives to contribute their information to innovation commons for free access by free riders. We conclude with a discussion of the value of more general support for innovation commons, and how this could be provided by increased private and public investment in innovation commons “engineering”, and by specific forms of innovation policymaking to increase social welfare via enhancement of innovation commons.</p></blockquote><p></p><p>Our general argument is that <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3915997" target="_blank">"if and as private incentives to generate valuable innovation-related information can be sustained – which we will argue is often the case – social welfare will be enhanced when innovation-related data and information are transferred from private ownership to an innovation commons."</a></p><p><a href="https://www.rogerclarke.com/II/IWtbF.html" target="_blank">As Stewart Brand phrased it (and might have been the first to phrase it this way), "information wants to be free".</a> <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3915997" target="_blank">This principle holds true for information in the form of data.</a></p>Andrew W. Torrancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00031068065400613238noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1751493145066114108.post-15672253629241166782021-09-03T19:12:00.004-05:002021-09-03T19:12:42.542-05:00O tempora! O mores! (N)O TV! <p>When I was a grad student, my week was studded with network television shows I allowed myself to watch as treats to reward myself for long hours in the lab. These included <i>Seinfeld</i>, <i>Frasier</i>, <i>The X-Files</i>, and various British dramas on PBS. There were no alternatives to network TV back then.</p><p>In thinking about what I might watch this Labour Day weekend, I was struck by the fact that none of the options that came to mind - except PBS - involved network TV. In fact, I drew a blank when I tried to think of a single current network TV series. Every show I could think of was offered by streaming services. Although it has snuck up on me, I realize I am almost entirely alienated from network TV. I know I'm not alone.</p><p><i>O tempora! </i> <i>O mores!</i> <i>(N)O TV!</i></p>Andrew W. Torrancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00031068065400613238noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1751493145066114108.post-12783937961805604382021-09-01T21:47:00.002-05:002021-09-03T18:56:08.547-05:00David Liu On Genome Editing <p>The Sheeky Science Show featured a detailed interview on March 28, 2021, with <a href="https://www.broadinstitute.org/bios/david-liu" target="_blank">Professor David Liu about advances in genome editing, particularly the base and prime editing methods developed in his laboratory at the Broad Institute</a>. Here is the interview:</p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ml1svbRo7Lg" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><p>For full disclosure, I was head of intellectual property at the Broad Institute from 2019 until 2021, which coincided with some of these inventions.</p>Andrew W. Torrancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00031068065400613238noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1751493145066114108.post-62088077841159993182021-08-15T22:38:00.001-05:002021-08-15T22:43:03.275-05:00Silly Wonky<p><a href="https://www.gg.ca/en" target="_blank">Canadian Governor General Mary Simon</a> today <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/federal-election-call-1.6141189" target="_blank">allowed the governing Liberal Party to call a snap election for September 20, 2021</a>. No one knows why an election is necessary in the midst of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, especially since the previous election was less than two years ago. Nevertheless, this election campaign already features the most bizarre attack ad in Canadian political history.</p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3Q8BROYNYkY" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><p>Let's hope this quixotic video is <i>sui generis</i>. </p>Andrew W. Torrancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00031068065400613238noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1751493145066114108.post-88582266938844539192021-07-24T21:00:00.003-05:002021-07-25T18:55:19.223-05:00 A North American Tail: Fievel Comes EastThe <a href="https://gpnc.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/32/2017/12/KSMammalsv2.pdf" target="_blank">Northern Grasshopper Mouse (<i>Onychomys leucogaster</i>)</a> occurs widely throughout west-central North America. Among its distinctive features are three that are quite unmurine: it is fiercely carnivorous; as a "werewolf mouse", it howls at the moon; and, its tail is surprisingly, well, curtailed. Here is the Northern Grasshopper Mouse that visited our backyard this past Spring:<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDNq7T2rrVsHi3wJg_kRz8C1dq6XHH-uYciaJPYY7gCE9pvaG3tEjpgeQ0zIXbCZwUTlDmAOVQAoVEqXpsCDYwVjcE2wdJfuIKjxKqhN7tCK2O309aFD5nNOzGp7WIwVNA5puklYe7EdaR/s2048/Northern+Grasshopper+Mouse+%2528Spring+2021%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDNq7T2rrVsHi3wJg_kRz8C1dq6XHH-uYciaJPYY7gCE9pvaG3tEjpgeQ0zIXbCZwUTlDmAOVQAoVEqXpsCDYwVjcE2wdJfuIKjxKqhN7tCK2O309aFD5nNOzGp7WIwVNA5puklYe7EdaR/w480-h640/Northern+Grasshopper+Mouse+%2528Spring+2021%2529.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><br /><div><br /><div>Our peripatetic visitor has a surprise that extends well beyond its abbreviated tail; the eastern extent of <a href="https://gpnc.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/32/2017/12/KSMammalsv2.pdf" target="_blank">its geographic range</a> ends several hundred kilometers west of where I took its portrait. Welcome to the neighbourhood, pioneering murid.</div></div>Andrew W. Torrancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00031068065400613238noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1751493145066114108.post-39773710673713427712021-06-27T22:58:00.001-05:002021-06-27T23:01:04.604-05:00Petrie-Flom Patents<p>On December 6, 2019, I had the pleasure of presenting what I saw then as the leading issues in patent law related to health at the <a href="https://petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/events/details/eighth-annual-health-law-year-in-p-review" target="_blank">Eighth Annual Health Law Year in P/Review</a> at <a href="https://petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/" target="_blank">Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School</a>. Here is my presentation, followed by other presentations on my panel.</p><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DcPsrLaz5tQ" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></div><div>Thank you to Professors <a href="https://law.illinois.edu/faculty-research/faculty-profiles/jacob-s-sherkow/" target="_blank">Jake Sherkow</a> and <a href="https://hls.harvard.edu/faculty/directory/10176/Cohen" target="_blank">I. Glenn Cohen</a> for inviting me to this fun event.</div>Andrew W. Torrancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00031068065400613238noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1751493145066114108.post-53918035843533488592021-04-13T22:47:00.001-05:002021-04-13T22:47:55.405-05:00Biologia Sintetica A Pavia<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix7bXjFpht0svivQ9w1A9TGlFhAi_9pbjNHvWB5TKwihb8zGD-nkMBgeiCiEmfUsENpYdfIvlGrpU8eoOGrxU5p5eONOqEKR3tMcba4KYct9gbGKJPMiOfFk9GUnhQIhHYtQDQIEGEg1y9/s2048/Pavia+Lecture+on+Synthetic+Biology+%2528April+15%252C+2021%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1445" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix7bXjFpht0svivQ9w1A9TGlFhAi_9pbjNHvWB5TKwihb8zGD-nkMBgeiCiEmfUsENpYdfIvlGrpU8eoOGrxU5p5eONOqEKR3tMcba4KYct9gbGKJPMiOfFk9GUnhQIhHYtQDQIEGEg1y9/w453-h640/Pavia+Lecture+on+Synthetic+Biology+%2528April+15%252C+2021%2529.png" width="453" /></a></div><br /><p></p>Andrew W. Torrancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00031068065400613238noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1751493145066114108.post-81501048730799229072021-03-06T22:55:00.000-06:002021-03-06T22:55:25.514-06:00Canuck Neutrality<p>United States President Joe Biden has invited a third Canadian into the inner circle of his administration. <a href="https://www.law.columbia.edu/faculty/timothy-wu" target="_blank">Columbia Law School Professor Timothy Shiou-Ming Wu</a>, <a href="http://www.timwu.org/history.htm" target="_blank">who grew up partly in The Six</a>, <a href="http://www.timwu.org/about.html" target="_blank">then received his biophysics B.Sc. from McGill University</a>, will <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/press-briefings/2021/03/05/press-briefing-by-press-secretary-jen-psaki-march-5-2021/" target="_blank">serve on the National Economic Council as a Special Assistant to the President for Technology and Competition Policy</a>. Professor Wu joins fellow former Montrealers Vice President Kamala Harris and <a href="https://news.mit.edu/2021/elisabeth-reynolds-joining-national-economic-council-0305" target="_blank">Professor Elisabeth Beck Reynolds</a> as senior officials in the Biden Administration. Perhaps <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal-style_smoked_meat" target="_blank">smoked meat</a> will now make its way onto White House menu. </p>Andrew W. Torrancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00031068065400613238noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1751493145066114108.post-51598320458134808882021-01-17T17:25:00.001-06:002021-01-17T17:25:05.728-06:00Copyright Moves Beyond Mickey Mouse<p> <a href="https://www.flatlandkc.org/arts-culture/free-steamboat-willie-how-walt-disneys-original-mouse-could-be-entering-the-public-domain/" target="_blank">Kansas City PBS published a story by Jacob Douglas, entitled "Free (Steamboat) Willie: How Walt Disney’s Original Mouse Could be Entering the Public Domain", on January 14, 2021.</a> <a href="https://www.flatlandkc.org/arts-culture/free-steamboat-willie-how-walt-disneys-original-mouse-could-be-entering-the-public-domain/">Here it is.</a> It was a pleasure being interviewed for <a href="https://www.flatlandkc.org/arts-culture/free-steamboat-willie-how-walt-disneys-original-mouse-could-be-entering-the-public-domain/">this article</a>.</p>Andrew W. Torrancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00031068065400613238noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1751493145066114108.post-44454861678209977662021-01-17T00:13:00.006-06:002021-01-17T17:11:18.002-06:00Science To Lead<p> On <a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-technology-francis-collins-022fc771e262e6f1c7e33ffe80e1d37b" target="_blank">January 16, 2021, United States President-elect Joe Biden introduced his top science and technology advisors.</a> Biden <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00118-8" target="_blank">announced that my brilliant colleague at the <i>Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard</i>, Dr. Eric Lander, will be his Cabinet-level science advisor and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology ("OSTP").</a> Here Biden introduces his impressive new science and technology advisors: <iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2iWDeoHh_sg?start=1815" width="560"></iframe></p><p>Congratulations to President-elect Joe Biden for putting science and technology front and centre in his Administration and for choosing the amazing Dr. Eric Lander to lead this effort.</p>Andrew W. Torrancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00031068065400613238noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1751493145066114108.post-11308189944946386872020-12-29T01:09:00.000-06:002020-12-29T01:09:07.263-06:00Accountability With A Capital "Ism"<p>Several colleagues and I have published a new article, entitled "<a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3755043" target="_blank">Accountability with a Capital “Ism”: A Computational Simulation of the Accountable Capitalism Act vs. Delaware Corporate Law</a>", in the <i><a href="https://moritzlaw.osu.edu/ostlj/" target="_blank">Ohio State Technology Law Journal (OSTLJ)</a>.</i> <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3755043" target="_blank">Here is the abstract:</a></p><p></p><blockquote><p>In 2018, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren proposed S.B. 3348, the Accountable Capitalism Act. This Act seeks to alter corporate behavior to balance the effects of corporate actions across several different stakeholder groups, rather than focusing on the primacy of shareholders as is conventional in many U.S. state corporate laws. It has traditionally been difficult to determine the effects of the law in advance. However, innovative work in empirical legal studies is enabling experimental evaluations of laws through participatory simulation. We implemented such a simulation to compare the effects of the Accountable Capitalism Act vs. Delaware corporate law on director behavior.</p><p>We deployed this simulation to 300 human participants via Amazon’s crowdsourcing platform. Building on previous findings that showed that participants assigned to act as shareholder-selected directors and instructed via the Accountable Capitalism Act favored shareholders over other stakeholders in forced-choice contexts, this study found that such participants instructed via Delaware corporate law favored shareholders over other stakeholders as well. However, in a context where the alternate option was one that provided balanced benefits for several stakeholder groups, those instructed via Delaware corporate law placed significantly greater emphasis on shareholders than did those instructed via the Accountable Capitalism Act.</p><p>Based on the results from the human participants, we constituted 3000 “virtual boards of directors,” composed of randomly selected groups of study participants assigned to different types of directorships. Results from the virtual boards of directors suggest that boards composed of shareholder-selected directors instructed via the Accountable Capitalism Act led to lower levels of disparity across different stakeholder groups than those composed of shareholder-selected directors instructed via Delaware corporate law. In addition, those composed of 60% shareholder-selected directors and 40% employee-selected directors, as specified in the Accountable Capitalism Act, led to still lower levels of disparity than those composed solely of shareholder-selected directors.</p><p>While these findings are based on interactive simulations rather than the real world, and based on the behavior of everyday people rather than business executives, they nevertheless provide experimental evidence that two key aspects of the Accountable Capitalism Act—the requirement for directors to consider the effects of corporate actions on various stakeholder groups, and the representation of employees on corporate boards—both produce results in line with their desired effects. Taken together, these results provide experimental support for the proposition that the Accountable Capitalism Act would lead to more balanced corporate behavior than does Delaware corporate law.</p></blockquote><p></p><p>The article is available free <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3755043" target="_blank">here</a>. Thank you very much to the dedicated and talented staff of the OSTLJ for all their hard work and editorial assistance. </p>Andrew W. Torrancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00031068065400613238noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1751493145066114108.post-63363826730974639082020-12-21T00:01:00.000-06:002020-12-21T00:01:20.723-06:00The Crown Evolves<p>Viral genomes can mutate rapidly. Extensive genomic sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 in the United Kingdom during 2020 has identified several distinct phylogenetic lineages. In <a href="https://www.cogconsortium.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Report-1_COG-UK_19-December-2020_SARS-CoV-2-Mutations.pdf" target="_blank">a report published on December 19, 2020, the Covid-19 Genomics UK Consortium ("COG-UK") describes several notable features of one these clades, which has been designated B.1.1.7:</a></p><p></p><blockquote>Has 17 mutations (14 replacements and 3 deletions) including: T1001I, A1708D, I2230T, SGF 3675-3677 del In the ORF1ab; 69-70 del, Y144 del, N501Y, A570D, P681H, T716I, S982A and D1118H in the Spike; Q27stop, R52I and Y73C in ORF8; D3L and S235F in the N. Noteworthy N501Y enhances ACE2 binding affinity, 69-70del has immunological role and it is associated with some diagnostics failures, and P681H occurs at the furin cleavage site, known for biological significance in membrane fusion[.]</blockquote><p></p><p>Worries that rapidly-spreading SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 may be associated with higher infectiousness <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/20/uk/uk-coronavirus-variant-intl-gbr/index.html" target="_blank">have led a number of countries to suspend direct flights from the United Kingdom.</a></p>Andrew W. Torrancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00031068065400613238noreply@blogger.com