WT75 - Discovering Drugs Without Patents: an open access revolution in progress

29.September.2011 - 7pm

Prof. Aled Edwards, Univ. of Toronto, director and CEO of the Structural Genomics Consortium

Venue: Oxford University Museum of Natural History - Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PW

Places for this lecture will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis. The lecture theatre has a capacity for 300 people.

This lecture is part of a series of events in Oxford to celebrate the 75 years of The Wellcome Trust.

The Human Genome Project has yielded amazing insights, but at the same time has starkly revealed that we know far too little about human biology. This lack of understanding is one of the main reasons that we are unable to discover new medicines for the major diseases that afflict mankind. Yet, even in the face of this ignorance, the drug discovery world in academia and industry continues to rely on secrecy as a means to protect ideas and financial positions - even though in no scientific discipline has secrecy led to greater understanding, and even though there is no evidence that patenting is necessary to spur innovation. There needs to be a fundamental change in how we discover medicines.

Prof. Aled Edwards, who leads the Structural Genomics Consortium and is one of the world leading actors in open access science, will be giving a talk entitled "Discovering Drugs Without Patents: an open access revolution in progress". Edwards will describe an economically-viable model for open access pharmaceutical innovation - one that is being developed in partnership with the pharmaceutical industry, governments, regulators, universities and patient groups.

Read more about Al!

Download poster(PDF)

Read more about the Oxford Celebrating 75 Extraordinary Years of the Wellcome Trust

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