Innovation in Pharmaceutical Technologies Seminar

3 units

This seminar will consider the ways in which different areas of law contribute to the broader innovation ecosystem surrounding pharmaceutical technologies, examining the relationships between legal doctrines and innovation incentives. The first section of the course will consider different innovation policy levers, beginning with a focus on traditional levers like intellectual property and expanding to consider understudied incentive levers including grants, prize systems, and health insurance coverage. The second section will engage in an intersystemic analysis of these innovation policy levers, exploring their interactions and their relationship to the relevant legal institutional actors. The third section will confront a series of case studies, chosen to demonstrate the power and potential of this broad view of innovation policy. Readings will include scholarly articles from the legal literature, cases, and other materials. Two-thirds of the course grade will be based on written work: three seven-to-eight-page response papers, spread evenly throughout the course. One-third will be based on class participation. Feedback will be provided on each response paper before the next is due, but no rewrites will be required. Previous coursework in the area, such as the Intellectual Property Survey, Patent Law, or Health Law is strongly preferred, but not required - prior work or graduate school experience in the area is sufficient preparation for many.