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‘Benevolent’ patent extensions could raise billions for R&D in poorer countries

Research into vaccines, crop seeds and other innovations for low- or middle-income nations could be rewarded by offering longer patent coverage for profitable, non-essential inventions.
  1. Christopher B. Barrett

    1. Christopher B. Barrett is professor of applied economics and management and professor of public policy at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA.

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A community worker sits on the floor with a mum and baby and hands over drugs to treat river blindness

A community worker in western Uganda distributes drugs to treat the parasitic diseases river blindness and malaria. Credit: Andy Crump/Science Photo Library

Each year, businesses and governments worldwide invest more than US$2 trillion in research and development (R&D) projects. Yet investments in innovations that are intended to help the world’s poor people are meagre. In 2020, R&D expenditure in high-income countries (HICs) amounted to $1.6 trillion, 74% of the total (see go.nature.com/3kmk9qd). Yet those countries have a combined population of just 1.2 billion — 15% of the world’s total. Exclude China, and in 2020 just $224 million was spent on R&D in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) that are home to 5.3 billion people (see ‘Global investment gap’).

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Nature 621, 687-690 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-02998-4

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Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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