Sandra Barbosu
Sandra Barbosu, PhD, is associate director of ITIF’s Center for Life Sciences Innovation. Her research focuses on the economics of science and innovation, with a particular interest in emerging technologies in the healthcare setting.
Sandra is also adjunct professor in the Technology Management and Innovation Department at New York University's Tandon School of Engineering.
Prior to joining ITIF, Sandra served as program officer in Economics at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in New York, where she oversaw and assisted in the evaluation of grant proposals and strategy development.
Sandra holds a PhD in Strategic Management from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, an MSc in Precision Cancer Medicine from the University of Oxford, and a BA in Economics and Mathematics from the University of Rochester.
Research Areas
Recent Publications
Harnessing AI to Accelerate Innovation in the Biopharmaceutical Industry
AI has the potential to transform drug development by enhancing productivity across the entire development pipeline, boosting biopharmaceutical innovation, accelerating the delivery of new therapies, and fostering competition to help improve public health outcomes.
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.
Draghi Wants to Have His Drug Cake and Eat It Too
Mario Draghi's 2024 report addresses the EU's biopharmaceutical decline, citing challenges like underfunded research, fragmented pricing, and competition from the U.S. and China. It recommends reforms but underplays the impact of EU drug price controls on innovation.
How Innovative Is China in Biotechnology?
China used to be considered a laggard in biotech. But with a comprehensive national strategy and extensive resources now supporting the industry, it is becoming more innovative. In fact, several indicators suggest it is narrowing the innovation gap with global leaders in the West.
Advancing Biomedical Innovation With Policies Supporting Privacy-Enhancing Technologies
By improving privacy protection and facilitating secure collaborative research, privacy-enhancing technology could complement data-sharing policies and enable analysis of sensitive medical data and support biomedical innovation.
The Relationship Between Biopharma R&D Investment and Expected Returns: Improving Evidence to Inform Policy
Better evidence is needed to evaluate the impact of policy changes on new drug development. Greater availability of government data should support more rigorous evaluations to inform evidence-based policymaking.
LATAM Health Champions, 2024
Innovation plays a critical role in improving public health and in overcoming global health challenges. The call for LATAM Health Champions, which ran from February 5 to March 5, 2024, received more than 60 applications proposing innovative health solutions to a wide range of health challenges. Here, the top 20 are highlighted.
Not Again: Why the United States Can’t Afford to Lose Its Biopharma Industry
America’s leadership in advanced-technology industries can never be taken for granted, as evidenced by its losses in telecommunications equipment, semiconductors, televisions, solar panels, and chemicals. Policymakers must recognize what went wrong in those cases to avoid a similar industrial decline in the biopharmaceutical industry.
Recent Events and Presentations
Innovate4Health: How IP and Innovation Are Solving Global Health Challenges
Please join ITIF, the Geneva Network, and the University of Akron School of Law for an event releasing a new report 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.
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.