Mitigating Risks In Countries With Poor IP Protection

Life Science Leader, a business magazine for executives working in the life sciences, pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical, and medical device industries, wrote a feature story on Tim Hubbard's research on safeguarding R&D rights in risky countries. Hubbard is an assistant professor of management in the Mendoza College of Business.

As Hubbard explains, downstream commercialization activities can counterbalance weak IP protection, thereby allowing a firm to profit from its investment. For example, a company may commercialize a product in one country, manufacture it in a nearby country, and conduct R&D in yet another country within the region. Investments rarely are so incremental or dispersed in the EU or U.S., according to Hubbard.