News by Subject Policy & Ethics

As gene therapy trials show promise to cure or ameliorate several diseases, it is time to explore ways to pay for the treatments, according to commentary in the journal Science. Noting the potential of gene therapy to be a one-time treatment for rare and serious diseases that otherwise cost hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars in chronic care over a lifetime, the authors suggest several models for valuing, pricing and developing gene therapy.

Starting with their Grant Proposal, submitted and accepted by the Canadian International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Prof. Cameron Neylon and his team are to publish a series of outputs and outcomes resulting from their ongoing data sharing pilot project in the open access journal Research Ideas and Outcomes. Through eight diverse Data Management Plans, used as case studies, they are to eventually provide advice on refining the open data policy guidelines in development research.

A new explanation of how gypsum forms may change the way we process this important building material, as well as allow us to interpret past water availability on other planets such as Mars. The work is reported in Nature Communications.

The recent discovery of a molecule that rescues damaged blood vessels, yet preserves healthy vessels, could serve as a springboard for a new pharmaceutical therapy with fewer side effects for hypertension.

Building on the results of a survey circulated to US and Canadian universities to understand current approaches for defining technology transfer activities and recognizing them as part of faculty performance assessments, a task force of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities has made recommendations for how universities might go about taking into account the value of technology transfer and concomitant social benefits as part of tenure and promotion considerations.

The current issue of Technology and Innovation has a special section on the 2015 NAI Conference, including articles on the discovery and commercialization of Lyrica, global patterns of innovation, the role of failure in the innovation process, and wireless health sensors for in vivo diagnostics. In addition, this issue features the USPTO commentary, the NAI Profile, and general articles on the valuation of tech transfer for tenure and promotion, student IP, protocol-provided clinical research, and groundwater management.

Researchers looked at the associations between firearm-related laws and firearm homicides, suicides, and unintentional injuries and deaths. The results indicate that gun violence tended to decline after countries passed new restrictions on gun purchasing and ownership. The paper is the first to explore the evidence from around the world on gun laws and gun violence to determine whether gun restrictions help reduce gun deaths.