Collaborative working at Novartis
Don Tapscott’s Macrowikinomics (co-written with Anthony Williams) highlighted the groundbreaking step taken in 2007 by Novartis of sharing its type 2 diabetes research online. GC catches up with Felix R. Ehrat, Novartis Group General Counsel, to find out more about the practicalities of open collaboration.
Collaboration in Big Pharma might seem like anathema for some who think of the regular patent litigation headlines that the industry produces. However, the sector is seeing an increasing number of peer-to-peer collaborations, and researchers at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR) have championed open research collaborations between entities. For example, as well as the diabetes collaboration in 2007, Novartis has made detailed in formation relating to hundreds of cancer cell lines available to all cancer researchers.
The company views such collaborations as a strategic benefit, says group general counsel Felix R. Ehrat, albeit one that is hard to quantify. ‘It really is about bringing the best brains to the table with as few as possible constraints,’ he says, adding that ‘protection of intellectual property has its place, but not necessarily in these types of collaborations.’ And rather than reluctantly ceding IP ownership, the legal team has been an enthusiastic enabler of this process: ‘We would do a favour for [non-Novartis] researchers by providing materials or access to NIBR processes and facilities.’ The legal team developed an ‘in kind’ letter which provides a contractual basis for open information exchanges to occur. ‘Intellectual property remains with whoever invents it. No strings,’ Ehrat explains.
