SciDev.Net

This document presents the proceedings of a conference at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in December 2001. The conference papers deal with themes relating to the role of scientific research in the development of Northern countries and the need for North–South research cooperation. They document the experiences of research cooperation involving, among others, India, South Africa and a number of East African countries. Several papers deal with innovation and scientific cooperation, with case studies.

This paper presents a review of the challenges of international scholarly scientific collaboration. It looks at institutional constraints and points out that the challenges and problems multiply when collaborators come from different countries with differing conditions, resource endowments and institutional structures. It is easier to call for more and better forms of international collaboration than it is to design them. The report asserts that good design is helped by a better understanding of what collaboration is and how it has been carried out. It draws on social research insights to help reduce the transactional, financial, ethical and emotional costs of international linkages and exchange and provides a conceptual framework for thinking about international collaboration issues.

This report discusses whether the TRIPS-Plus rules on pharmaceutical patents are likely to benefit the Thai pharmaceutical industry. It focuses on the expected impact on pharmaceutical product prices, research and development efforts and technology transfer including foreign direct investment.

The author argues that Thailand has limited technological capacity and that a stringent intellectual property rights regime such as the TRIPS-Plus will only protect research results developed elsewhere. In the Thai pharmaceutical industry, it will damage domestic research and development and limit the acquisition of foreign technologies.

The report includes recommendations for developing countries wishing to strengthen their current patent protection and improve their positions in bilateral and multilateral trade negotiations.

This paper analyses the development of South Korea's hepatitis B vaccine industry. In particular, it examines how intellectual property and drug and vaccine regulations affected the industry's development.

Growth of South Korea's hepatitis B vaccine industry was supported by joint ventures allowing the acquisition of foreign knowledge, the potential market for the vaccine and the availability of skilled manpower. Also vital to the process were improvements in South Korea's regulations, which brought them more into line with international standards. The authors show that South Korea's success has policy implications for other countries. To reach the higher stages of innovative development in the biomedical industry, they say, developing countries examine R&D in the public and private sectors, high manufacturing standards, national and international distribution systems, intellectual property systems and regulatory systems.