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Contracts and intellectual property rights in translational R&D: furthering safeguards in the public interest

Intellectual property safeguards should be more widely incorporated into the bilateral contracts that underpin the translational R&D process to preserve the public interest, especially where public funds and resources have spearheaded the innovation process.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by ESRC Impact Acceleration Account 2019: Leicester (ES/T501967/1) and ESRC Impact Acceleration Account Sheffield (ES/T502017/1). The authors sincerely thank all participants at the project workshops held in February and March 2023. In particular, we thank J. Wilkinson, A. Walsh, M. Gibbs and A. Chaix, panelists at the event held on 23 March 2023. We also thank our research assistants N. Agrawal, L. Ensign, I. Ewelukwa and A. Mc Koy for their valuable help in the project. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and they do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of any of the participants at the project workshops. All authors contributed equally.

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Correspondence to Naomi Hawkins.

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Anderson, M., Hawkins, N. & Slade, A. Contracts and intellectual property rights in translational R&D: furthering safeguards in the public interest. Nat Biotechnol 42, 179–182 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-023-02117-8

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