Center for Life Sciences Innovation
ITIF’s Center for Life Sciences Innovation advocates for accelerating biopharmaceutical innovation by recognizing that the public and private sectors both have essential roles to play. The Center’s mission is to study and advance the many technology, economic, and policy factors underpinning successful life sciences innovation—from how new technologies like artificial intelligence, genomics, and gene editing are powering the next generation of biomedical innovation to the economics of life sciences innovation, including the role of IP and incentives therein; international competitiveness in life sciences innovation; and foremost the optimal set of public policies, at home and abroad, to spur greater levels of much-needed biopharmaceutical innovation. (Read more.)
- Special series on evidence-based biopharmaceutical policymaking: Better evidence is needed to evaluate the impact of public policy changes on new drug development. To address this need, ITIF is sponsoring a research grant program and a special issue of Health Affairs Scholar. Grant proposals are due December 15. (Read the guidelines.) The Center will serve as a hub for this ongoing work. (Read the series.)
- Special series on global health innovation: Innovate4Health is a joint project of ITIF and the University of Akron IP Center (UAIP), spotlighting innovators from around the world who have leveraged IP systems to bring their life-saving innovations to market.
- Stay up to date on our work by signing up for ITIF’s weekly email and checking the box to get information about “Life Sciences.”
Featured Publications
Comments to the Bureau of Industry and Security Regarding Its Section 232 Investigation of Pharmaceutical Imports
ITIF’s comments cover issues related to demand for pharmaceuticals; domestic production capacity; the role of foreign supply chains; the concentration of suppliers; the impact of foreign subsidies; the impact of artificially suppressed prices; and other trade considerations.
The Value of Follow-On Biopharma Innovation for Health Outcomes and Economic Growth
Follow-on biopharmaceutical innovations deliver substantial health and economic benefits by improving the safety and efficacy of existing therapies, addressing unmet patient needs, expanding therapeutic applications, and enhancing adherence. Supportive policies are essential to sustain progress and ensure broad access to these medical advances.
Streamlining Drug Approvals Without Compromising Safety
The FDA’s Breakthrough Therapy Designation program underscores the benefits of targeted regulatory innovation. Its success offers valuable lessons for policymakers navigating the balance between speed and safety in approving life-saving therapies.
Evidence to Inform Biopharmaceutical Policy: A Call for Research on the Impact of Public Policies on Investment in Drug Development
The scope and magnitude of the trade-off between immediate savings from lower drug prices and future health benefits from clinical development remain poorly understood and quantified. To support rigorous evaluations and inform evidence-based policymaking, it is crucial to invest in this area through research grants and improved access to federal and private data.
Evidence-Based Biopharmaceutical Policymaking: Symposium Report
There is a need for more rigorous evidence and more recent, high-quality data to inform biopharmaceutical policymaking by shedding light on the relationship between pharmaceutical firms’ expectations of financial returns from new drugs and their ability to invest in further R&D to discover future generations of drugs.
Events
December 10, 2024
Innovate4Health: How IP and Innovation Are Solving Global Health Challenges
Watch now for an event releasing a report by ITIF, the Geneva Network, and the University of Akron School of Law profiling 24 pioneering case studies from five regions—Latin America, Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Middle East and North Africa—where IP rights have enabled innovators to create impactful health solutions, particularly in the developing world.
March 5, 2024
Preserving U.S. Leadership in Biopharmaceutical Innovation
Watch now for an expert panel discussion surrounding the ITIF report examining why the United States lost its lead in other advanced technology industries, and how policymakers can avoid repeating the same mistakes in the biopharmaceutical sector.
April 4, 2023
Lessons From the Rise and Fall of Japan’s Life-Sciences Innovation Ecosystem
Tune in for an expert panel discussion examining where Japan faltered in this sector, what it must do to restore its life-sciences innovation leadership and competitiveness, why that would be in the best interests of both Japan and the United States—and what America must do to avoid following in Japan’s footsteps.
March 24, 2023
Preserving a Virtuous Cycle: The Economics of Biopharmaceutical Innovation
Watch the release event of a new report that examines the dynamics that underpin the economics of biopharmaceutical innovation and how to maintain a supportive environment that keeps the United States in the lead of life-sciences innovation.
March 29, 2022
How Using March-in Rights Would Threaten America’s Research Universities
ITIF hosted a panel discussion with leading experts on innovation policy, technology transfer, and business, who spoke to the practical implications of exercising federal “march-in” rights and why it would be a grave and ill-timed mistake for the U.S. health, competitiveness, and research landscape.
Vice President, Global Innovation Policy, and Director, Center for Life Sciences Innovation
Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
Read Bio
Cain Brothers & Company Professor of Healthcare Management in the Faculty of Business
Columbia University Graduate School of Business
Read Bio
More From the Center
March 24, 2025|Blogs
Broadening Genetic Representation in Biomedical Research Data
To stay ahead in biopharma and ensure new therapies work for everyone, the U.S. must fix the diversity gap in biomedical research.
March 10, 2025|News Clips
Trade Groups Urge the Administration to Maintain Basic Research Funding
Sandra Barbosu joined The Federal Drive with Tom Temin morning radio show to discuss the role of federal funding to medical research and innovation.
February 27, 2025|Testimonies & Filings
Comments to CMS on the List of Drugs for Price Setting Starting in 2027
Recent policies permitting CMS price setting are hamstringing the U.S. biopharmaceutical industry, as they reduce incentives for pharmaceutical companies to invest in future drug R&D to create life-improving and life-saving medicines.
February 25, 2025|Reports & Briefings
The Inflation Reduction Act Is Negotiating the United States Out of Drug Innovation
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) undermines innovation in small-molecule drugs by subjecting them to price controls after 9 years, whereas large-molecule drugs (biologics) are allowed 13 years of market pricing. Congress should pass the bipartisan EPIC Act to remedy this issue.
February 19, 2025|Blogs
How Early-Stage Science Drives Medical Innovation
Cutting federal life sciences funding threatens U.S. biopharmaceutical innovation, while China is ramping up investment to dominate the industry.
February 3, 2025|Op-Eds & Contributed Articles
A Bipartisan Success: Celebrating 40 Years of the Hatch-Waxman Act
The 1984 Hatch-Waxman Act revolutionized the U.S. pharmaceutical industry, successfully balancing the interests of pharmaceutical innovation and affordability by creating legal pathways for accelerated generic drug competition while extending patent protections and introducing data exclusivities that preserved incentives for novel pharmaceutical innovation.
December 19, 2024|Blogs
Behind the Numbers: What’s Really Driving America’s Poor Health Outcomes
America’s poor health outcomes aren’t about bad care—they’re about bad habits, and solving them starts long before the doctor’s office.
