2020-2021 University technology transfer during the COVID-19 pandemic
Dear London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine,
This is a new request that is related to on a FOI request we sent in October 2020. This previous request was titled: Licensing and patenting practices of COVID-19 technologies. This new request specifically asks for responses pertaining to the time period September 2020-October 2021, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, unless specified otherwise. Please can you make sure you reply to all 9 questions of the request, and clarify where it is not possible for you to release information citing a specific clause of the Freedom Of Information Act (2000).
For the purpose of clarity, please adhere to the following definitions when answering these questions:
Low and middle income country: A country that is defined as ‘low’, ‘lower-middle’ and ‘upper-middle’ income by the World Bank for the year 2018. Income status defined by GNI per capita.
Source: World bank, available online [https://tinyurl.com/y5dwc2qv]
A patent grants an inventor the exclusive rights to his or her invention. A patent holder can stop other people from selling, manufacturing, producing, or using the invention for a certain period of time.
Source: Upcouncil, available online [https://www.upcounsel.com/what-is-a-pate...
Licence: Permission for the licensee to use the intellectual property rights
Source: TaylorWessing, available online [https://www.taylorwessing.com/download/a...
Exclusive Licence: A licence that allows only the named licensee to exploit the relevant IP rights, the licensor is also excluded from exploiting these IP rights.
Non-Exclusive Licence: A licence that grants any number of licensees to exploit the IP.
Source: TaylorWessing, available online [https://www.taylorwessing.com/synapse/co...
Health Technology: ‘Health technology as defined by the WHO: “A health technology is the application of organized knowledge and skills in the form of devices, medicines, vaccines, procedures and systems developed to solve a health problem and improve quality of lives.’
Source: WHO, available online [https://www.who.int/health-technology-as...
START FOI request:
Q1. Can you release your internal strategy, policy, or any kind of public statement regarding the technology transfer (e.g. licensing, patenting) of COVID-19 related health technologies?
Q2. Does the institution have a formal policy on licensing and patenting of health technologies? If yes, please provide a link or PDF to the relevant policy document.
Q3. Has the university considered updating their strategy regarding the licensing and patenting of health technologies since October 2021 in light of the pandemic?
Q4. Please provide an Excel spreadsheet with headings as displayed below with all the COVID-19 related health technologies LICENSED by the university AND specify which countries they were licensed in AND specify whether they are exclusive or non-exclusive licenses (time period: September 2020-October 2021).
Health Technology Licensed | Country of Licensing | Type of License (Exclusive or Non-Exclusive)
Q5. Please provide a list of patents granted to your organization for any COVID-19 related health technologies listed by patent family, indicating countries/regions in which the patent has been granted (time period: September 2020-October 2021).
Q6. Does the institution have any plans on signing up to the Open-COVID pledge (https://opencovidpledge.org/) or any similar initiative that seeks to minimise intellectual property rights barriers during the COVID-19 pandemic (since January 2020)? If yes, please specify. If the university has engaged in specific discussions with Open-COVID pledge, please provide files related to these meetings.
Q7. Has the institution considered the licensing of COVID-19 related health technologies to the Covid Technology Access Pool (C-TAP) or the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) during the pandemic (since January 2020)? If yes, please specify. If the university has engaged in specific discussions with either C-TAP and/or MPP please provide files related to these meetings.
Q8. Has the institution signed on to the AUTM COVID-19 Licensing Guidelines (since January 2020)? If yes, please specify. If the university has engaged in specific discussions with AUTM on these guidelines please provide files related to these meetings.
Q9. Has the institution with the WHO technology transfer hub during the pandemic (since January 2020)? If yes, please specify. If the university has engaged in specific discussions with the WHO technology transfer hub please provide files related to these meetings.
Q10. Has the institution shared their best practices on the technology transfer of COVID-19 health technologies with other institutions? If yes, please specify. If the university has engaged in specific discussions with other universities on COVID-19 health technologies in the context of technology transfer, please provide files related to these meetings.
END FOI request.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me by email.
Yours faithfully,
Ayolola Eni-Olotu
LSHTM ServiceDesk
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Re: Freedom of Information request - 2020-2021 University technology
transfer during
Thank you for your request for information under the Freedom of
Information Act. We will process your request as soon as possible and
will respond within 20 working days.
Information on how we process Freedom of Information requests is available
on the LSHTM website at :
[1]https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/aboutus/organisa...
We may need to contact you again if we require further information from
you in order to process your request.
We will also contact you as soon as possible if we determine that a fee
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or postage costs associated with your request.
Please do not hesitate to contact us by reply to this email if you have
any questions relating to your request.
Regards,
Freedom of Information team
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London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Keppel Street, London WC1E 7HT UK | [2]www.lshtm.ac.uk
References
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LSHTM ServiceDesk
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Hi
Re: Freedom of Information request - 2020-2021 University technology
transfer during
Dear Ayolola,
I write to provide the response to your Freedom of Information Act
Request, for which I thank you.
Q1. Q3.
LSHTM, by the nature of the bulk of its research activity, has not to
date, developed any COVID-19 related technologies which would be suitable
for licensing and patenting.
However, LSHTM community actively contributes to the UK Government’s
Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies and LSHTM is making all of its
COVID-19 research outputs, including the COVID-19 Vaccine Development
Tracker, Outbreak Tracker etc. freely available to the international
community through its COVID-19 dedicated website:
[1]https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/research/researc...
Q2.
LSHTM has an IP Policy in place which provides a framework and guidance
for the effective identification, protection and translation of LSHTM
intellectual property (IP) to ensure that LSHTM’s research activities
deliver societal impact and patient benefit in an ethical and socially
responsible manner.
Please see the link to the IP Policy below:
[2]https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/sites/default/fi...
Q4. Q5. Q6. Q7. Q8. Q9. Q10
As LSHTM has not, to date, developed any COVID-19 related technologies
which would be suitable for licensing or patenting, these questions are
not applicable.
Some standard sections follow on the re-use of the information which has
been supplied to you, and your right to appeal if you are dissatisfied
with our handling of your request.
Re-use of the information supplied to you
The copyright of any information which has been supplied to you will be
owned by LSHTM unless otherwise indicated. The supply of information under
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Regulations does not give the person or organisation who receives it an
automatic right to re-use the information in a way which would infringe
copyright, for example, by making multiple copies, publishing and issuing
copies to the public.
Brief extracts of any material which is supplied to you may be reproduced
under the fair dealing provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act 1988 (sections 29 and 30) for research or private study for
non-commercial purposes, criticism, review or news reporting. More
extensive re-use must only be carried out with prior written permission
from LSHTM.
Enquiries about the re-use of material should be directed to the Archivist
& Records Manager (email: [email address]).
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Secretary
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Keppel Street
London
WC1E 7HT
Email: [London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine request email]
The Secretary will assign your appeal to a review committee, and will
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following address:
Information Commissioner
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
United Kingdom
Further information about your right to appeal to the Information
Commissioner is available on the Commissioner's website
(http://www.ico.gov.uk/).
Please do not hesitate to contact [London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine request email] if you have any
questions relating to our response to your request.
Yours sincerely,
Alex Hollander, on behalf of the Information Compliance team
School staff and students can visit the [3]ServiceDesk Portal and
[4]update their call under My Requests.
Alternatively, you can reply to this email or phone us quoting reference
2110-3286
LSHTM ServiceDesk
[5]servicedesk.lshtm.ac.uk
+44 (0)20 7927 2186
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London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Keppel Street, London WC1E 7HT UK | +44 (0)20 7636 8636 |
[6]www.lshtm.ac.uk
References
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3. http://servicedesk.lshtm.ac.uk/
4. http://lshtm.topdesk.net/tas/public/cont...
5. http://servicedesk.lshtm.ac.uk/
6. http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/
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