Capturing the Benefits of Biomedical Innovation in Developing Countries: Indonesia and Jordan

• Author: Roya Ghafele/Antony Taubman
• Position: WIPO Global IP Issues Division

Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world, and is host to the world's second greatest range of biodiversity. Jordan, with four million inhabitants, is relatively small, with little biodiversity, few natural resources and no oil reserves. Yet, both countries have strong potential in biomedical innovation: Indonesia in the natural medicines market; and Jordan in the pharmaceutical industry - the country's second largest export earner. Despite fundamental differences in their size, structure, resources and geopolitical context, both countries have developed intellectual property (IP) strategies, which aim to promote public benefits from domestic biomedical innovation.

This article explores the institutional settings which ensure that IP policies relating to biomedical research help contribute to public welfare, highlighting the different approaches taken by Indonesia and Jordan. It draws on studies shortly to be published by WIPO, which analyze innovation in the life sciences in a range of developing countries.

Managing IP in the public interest

Innovation in the life sciences - including health and agricultural research - aims to serve basic human needs: food, health, a clean environment. Policy makers face the challenge of shaping incentives through the IP system to ensure those needs are addressed. Promoting biomedical innovation, and managing the resulting IP for broader public welfare, requires a systematic approach to addressing key public interest goals - such as building indigenous innovation capacities, creating affordable medicines, capturing welfare benefits from publicly-funded research, and harnessing private sector resources to serve the public interest. This approach is ideally supported at three levels by:

* a balanced regulatory framework;

* accountable and effective public institutions; and

* effective use of public and private resources, including through partnerships.

The regulatory framework

IP regimes cannot be seen in isolation from the broader regulatory context, especially in the field of life sciences. Both Indonesia and Jordan have set IP policy within the broader public policy picture. "Jordan Vision 2020", a private sector initiative under the patronage of King Abdullah II and supported by the Jordanian Government, identifies biotechnology as lying "at the heart of competitive innovation - over the next 20 years," and highlights knowledge management as a means of strengthening competitive advantage. An export-driven pharmaceutical sector is one objective of this plan. The Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation is responsible for coordinating public policy...