EVENTS
UPCOMING EVENT
The Eira Conference 2026
The conference provides a unique opportunity to assemble policy-relevant research on the functions played by intellectual property rights, data rights, and other policy instruments on innovation, development, and financing incentives and structures in the biopharmaceutical and medical-device sector. Using economic concepts and empirical methods, contributors will deliver insights into the mix of intellectual property rights and other policy instruments that can sustain and enhance European and other regional biopharmaceutical ecosystems as well as the global market in financing and developing new drugs, medicines, and other therapies, and medical devices, to improve human well-being and quality of life. Contributors will also address the unique legal and policy issues raised by the use of artificial intelligence in drug discovery and development.
October 29-30, 2026
Draft program
Panel 1: Intellectual Property Rights and Biopharmaceutical Ecosystem Design
Katherine Rockett (Univ. of Essex), Pierre Regibeau (former Chief Competition Economist, DG Comp, currently Analysis Group), & Angelos Stenimachitis (Univ. of Essex, Economics, Ph.D. program and Compass Lexecon), Ecosystem Definition and Detection in the Pharmaceutical Industry
Keith Maskus (Univ. of Colorado, formerly World Bank) and Christine McDaniel (World Bank), The Role of Intellectual Property Assets in Financing Innovation in Biopharmaceutical Firms Across Countries
Panel 2: Intellectual Property Rights and Global Biopharmaceutical Markets
Olena Ivus, Associate Professor E. Marie Shantz Fellow of Business Economics, Queen’s University, Canada and Walter Park (American Univ.), Global Value Chains, Patent Protection, and Knowledge Diffusion in Pharmaceuticals
Chirantan Chatterjee (Univ. of Sussex), The Long Way to Innovation – India’s Biopharmaceutical Industry 2 Decades after WTO-TRIPs
Panel 3: Evidence on Patent Term and Biopharmaceutical Innovation
Gabriele Pellegrino (Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore), Fabio Montobbio (same) & Satayaki Chakravarty (same), Patent Term Extensions through the EU Supplemental Patent Certificate Regime
Gaetan de Rassenfosse (EPFL, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne) & Kyle Higham (Motu Economic & Public Policy Research), Patent Pendency and Innovation Outcomes in Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Sectors
Simona Gamba (University of Milan) and Laura Magazzini (Sant’ Anna School of Advanced Studies), Heterogeneous Innovation Responses to Orphan Drug Regulation
Keynote Lunch Address: Speaker to be announced.
Panel 4: Reinvigorating the European and Global Biopharmaceutical Ecosystem
Fredrik Erixon (European Center for International Political Economy), Andrea Dugo (ECIPE), Oscar Guinea (ECIPE), Beyond the Blockbuster: Intellectual Property and the Emerging Transformation of European Life Sciences
Timo Minssen (Univ. of Copenhagen, Law), Strategic Partnerships, Coopetition and Health Sovereignty: Recalibrating Incentives, Regulation, and Tech Transfer for a More Competitive Europe
Alden Abbott (George Mason Univ., Mercatus Institute) and Satya Marar (George Mason Univ., Mercatus Institute), Fostering Higher Foreign Contributions to Pharma R&D Through Trade Deals, Deregulation and Aligning Incentives
Panel 5: Evidence on Price Controls, Pricing Policy, and Biopharmaceutical Innovation
Harry Bowen (Queens Univ. of Charlotte) & Duane Schulthess (Vital Transformation), Effects of European Price Control on U.S. Pharmaceutical Innovation
Stephen Ezell (Information Technology & Information Foundation) & Sandra Barbosu (ITIF), Price Control Regimes and Pharmaceutical Innovation in Japan, Europe, and the United States
Katharina Blankart (Bern University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland), Paul Gerhard Peters (ZEW Mannheim) & Simon Reif (ZEW Mannheim), Paragraph Drug Availability – Value-based pricing and biopharmaceutical innovation
Panel 1: Insights from the Chinese Biopharmaceutical Ecosystem
Can Huang (Institute for Intellectual Property Management, School of Management, Zhejiang University), Lina Lai (School of Law, Hangzhou Dianzi University),Keyu Chen (Institute for Intellectual Property Management, School of Management, Zhejiang University) Regulatory Reform and Development of Pharmaceutical Industry in China
Mark Cohen (Asia Society), Chinese Industrial and Patent Policy in Pharmaceuticals
Dan Prud’homme (Florida Intl. Univ.), Tao Bai (University of Queensland) and Anthony Howell (Arizona State Univ.), Intellectual Property and the Future of Biotech Innovation in China and Europe
Panel 2: Legal and Policy Issues on Crisis-Driven Innovation and AI-Enabled Biopharmaceutical Drug Development
Xixi Hu & Yi Qian (University of British Columbia), Do Health Outbreaks Fuel Innovations?
Sven J.R. Bostyn (Univ. of Copenhagen, Law), AI, pharma and exclusivity rights: opportunities and pitfalls
Laura Fe (Murgitroyd, Law), Intellectual Property Protections for AI-Assisted Pharmaceutical Invention
Fireside Chat: Speakers to be announced
Event speakers






































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