07/14/2026
Do patents make drugs more expensive? And what role does intellectual property play in getting new medicines from the lab bench to patients? We explore these life-and-death questions with Dr. Bowman Heiden of the Eira Initiative in this month's Patently Strategic podcast episode.
The questions have never been more timely for public health or the future of medical innovations. Biopharmaceutical innovation sits at the center of some of our biggest public policy debates: drug pricing, access, generic competition, university research, venture funding, AI-driven discovery, follow-on research, and the future of biotech startups. This is a big conversation with high stakes, a deeply human element, and considerable nuance. With Bo's help, we work through the critical policy challenge of understanding how the system works, what incentives are actually doing, and what can go terribly wrong when lawmakers, courts, and pundits oversimplify the trade-offs.
** Special Guest: Dr. Bo Heiden **
Dr. Bo Heiden is one of the leading thinkers working at the intersection of intellectual property, innovation strategy, and life sciences policy. Dr. Heiden is the co-director of the Eira Initiative, a project out of the Berkeley Policy Institute, the Executive Director for the Tusher Strategic Initiative for Technology Leadership at Haas School of Business - UC Berkeley, the Co-Director of the Center for Intellectual Property (CIP) at University of Gothenburg, and the Co-Chair of the Technology, Innovation, and Intellectual Property program at the Classical Liberal Institute at the New York University School of Law.
** Episode Overview **
In this wide-ranging conversation on all things drug patents, we discuss the following with Bo:
⦿ Drug price and access concerns, as they pertain to patents.
⦿ The economic realities that make drug development a uniquely risky investment problem.
⦿ The CliffsNotes history of why the modern biotech system emerged so strongly in the United States.
⦿ What policymakers often miss in narratives around evergreening and patent monopolies, and how those narratives may now be pushing policy in directions that could undermine the very startup and R&D ecosystem we all depend on for advancements in medicine.
⦿ The Supreme Court’s recent Hikma decision and what it means for skinny labels, induced infringement, and generic competition.
⦿ Practical takeaways on two of the hottest areas in the market: AI-driven drug discovery and the evolving GLP-1 regulatory and generic landscape.
** Mossoff Minute: The Democratization of Invention **
In this month's included Mossoff Minute, Professor Adam Mossoff discusses the democratization of invention sparked by American independence.
📚 Read: https://www.aurorapatents.com/blog/the-biotech-bargain
▶️ Watch: https://youtu.be/FOrrIOO6zLM
🎧 Listen: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-biotech-bargain-how-patents-help-turn-risk-into/id1558735784?i=1000775400965
