LSIPR 50 2016: Francis Collins and James Greenwood

Name: Francis Collins

Organisation: National Institutes of Health

Position: Director

Francis Collins is a physician-geneticist who is noted for his landmark discoveries of disease genes and leadership of the Human Genome Project, which ended in 2003. During his career at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the US’s medical research agency, he worked as director of the national human genome research institute from 1993 to 2008. Collins was sworn into his role as director in 2009 and has since helped push funding for NIH research into cancer cells, Alzheimer’s, autism, schizophrenia, epilepsy and depression.

In August 2015, Collins released a statement declaring the NIH’s effort to research the AIDS pandemic. He outlined that there were 50,000 new infections yearly in the US and almost two million new infections worldwide. He helped introduce and implement new processes to help focus on HIV/AIDS research, including creating an external group called the NIH Office of AIDS Research Advisory Council.

The aim of this research was to develop a cure for HIV/AIDS, develop new HIV therapies with improved safety, support basic research, improve treatment of HIV-associated co-infections, and reduce the incidence of HIV/AIDS, including by developing safe and effective vaccines.

“These steps underscore the NIH’s strong commitment to responsible stewardship of the resources we receive from the American people. I am confident that the measures that we are taking will advance and accelerate the worldwide efforts to end the AIDS pandemic,” he said at the time.

Name: James Greenwood

Organisation: Biotechnology Industry Organization

Position: President and chief executive

James Greenwood is the president and chief executive of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), which represents more than 1,000 biotechnology companies, academic institutions, and related organisations in the US and 30 other nations. He has been working in this role since 2005 and in that capacity has increased the organisation’s budget and staff by nearly 50%.

Greenwood helps to shape public policy on a range of fronts in the biotechnology industry at state, national and international levels. The annual BIO international convention, which this year runs from June 6 to 10 in San Francisco, is the foremost networking event in the life sciences sector.

In March 2015, BIO released a report called “The Economic Contribution of University/Nonprofit Inventions in the United States: 1996-2013”, which outlined that during this 17-year period, patent licensing deals between academics and industry contributed between $282 billion and $1.18 trillion to the US economy. It also supported up to 3.1 million US jobs, the report said.

Greenwood said at the time: “We cannot take tech transfer, or the US patent system upon which it is based, for granted, particularly in the current economy. Preserving this system is critical to ensuring continued US economic revival and spurring the next wave of innovation in the life sciences.”

BIO has also responded to the work of hedge fund manager Kyle Bass of the Coalition for Affordable Drugs. Bass has filed multiple petitions for inter partes reviews of pharmaceutical and biotechnological patents. Greenwood has previously commented that “Bass has opened a new door to abuse of the US patent system, exploiting the US Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) patent challenge proceeding as part of his cynical short-selling strategy against innovative biotech companies that are delivering transformative therapies to patients in need.”

He added: “Patents are the lifeblood of innovative, lifesaving biotech companies. Congress and the USPTO should act promptly to prevent abuse of the patent system in this manner.”