Recent Trends in Remote Healthcare Applications and Futuristic Approach

Remote healthcare is a well-accepted telemedicine service that renders efficient and reliable healthcare to patients suffering from chronic diseases, neurological disorders, diabetes, osteoporosis, sensory organs, and other ailments. Artificial intelligence, wireless communication, sensors, organic polymers, and wearables enable affordable, non-invasive healthcare to patients in all age groups. Telehealth services and telemedicine are beneficial to people residing in remote locations or patients with limited mobility, rehabilitation treatment, and post-operative recovery. Remote healthcare applications and services proved to be significant during the COVID-19 pandemic for both patients and doctors. This study presents a detailed study of the use of artificial intelligence and the internet of things in applications of remote healthcare in many domains of health, along with recent patents. This research also presents network diagrams of documents from the Scopus database using the tool VOSViewer. The paper highlights gap which can be undertaken by future researchers. © 2023 IEEE.

Considering Bio/Pharma Reformulation Strategies

[...]of the significant cost of development, companies seek to recoup finances through data exclusivity and patent protection of intellectual property, such as the drug product's formulation. Bio/pharma companies reformulate existing therapies for a whole host of reasons, such as treating underserved or neglected disease areas, improving patient adherence (particularly for target patient groups, such as paediatrics), reducing the potential of drug abuse, and providing alternative options in crisis situations-as has been apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Pentamidine is an anti-infective agent that can be used to treat an earlier stage of the disease;however, it is unable to penetrate the blood-brain barrier sufficiently to treat the secondary stage of HAT. [...]it was hypothesized that a combined pentamidine-Pluronic formulation may be a suitable approach to provide patients with a single therapeutic option for treatment of all stages of HAT. [...]it was concluded that the pharmacokinetic data attained supports the use of safety and tolerability data from the conventional risperidone formulation for further testing of VAL401 (4).

Manufacturing Innovation

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.) The annual Global Innovation Index released in September 2021 ranked China twelfth, surpassing developed economies such as Japan, Israel, and Canada and raising fears in the United States amidst sluggish growth in North America and strong growth in the Asia Pacific region.1 Interestingly, the United States government responded by boycotting the Beijing Olympic Games, citing human rights abuses as the main reason.2 A tech war between China and the United States brewed beneath the diplomatic rancor over the attendance at the Olympic Games. Part I documents how the United States has assisted China's tech and intellectual property domination through President Nixon's historic visit to China, giving China Most Favorite Nation (MFN) status and ascending China to the World Trade Organization (WTO). [...]under Deng Xiaoping's leadership during the reform period, China rapidly developed its special economic zones (SEZs), laying the foundation for subsequent tech innovation and production. [...]broadcasting, telecommunications, office machines, computers, integrated circuits, and cell phones are among China's notable exports to the world.9 China dominates in commodities and raw materials, exporting refined petroleum, cotton, plywood, and tea.10 For agricultural products, China occupies the perch as the world's largest producer. Shenzhen rose as the largest among the four.18 Shenzhen, a small fishing locale in the southern part of China's southern province, Guangdong, served as the pioneer of Deng Xiaoping's embrace of economic reforms.19 A market-oriented economy took root in Shenzhen, allowing foreign companies and entities from Hong Kong and Macau to operate and allowing Chinese talents the freedom to leave their hometowns and move into the SEZs.20 Cheap labor proved to be another significant factor facilitating China's rise as a global manufacturer.21 In the 1980s, multinational corporations from Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea, as well as domestic Chinese companies, opened their factories in the SEZs and other cities in China to take advantage of the cheap and plentiful labor force.22 Indeed, when Deng Xiaoping began his pilot SEZs, China's young workers who wished to lift themselves out of poverty descended into the economic zones in search of better opportunities.23 Shenzhen grew from a population of 59,000 in 1980 to a population of 12,357,000 in 2020.24 The new migrants became the workers, participants, and stakeholders in the global manufacturing frontier.25 Because of the abundance of cheap labor, manufacturers in China have no difficulty keeping production prices low and pleasing consumers and businesses worldwide.26 China's currency manipulation is another factor propelling China to its domination in global manufacturing.27 The United States Congress attempted numerous times to introduce legislation to combat China's currency manipulation.28 China artificially devalued its currency through government control of the exchange rate and refused to let the Chinese Renminbi (RMB) float.29 Despite strong criticisms from the United States, China refuses to allow its currency to freely float.30 China's currency manipulations, according to critics, caused the widening of trade deficits between the United States and China.31 China's currency manipulation allows products to be manufactured at lower prices, hampering competitors and thereafter replacing them.32 In order to cope with China's currency practices, United States manufacturers facing their own existential crises must decide to either outsource jobs overseas or face large risks, including financial ruin.33 The United States lost millions of manufacturing jobs due to massive job outsourcing as the trade deficits between the United States and China continued to persist.34 Geopolitically, in shaping post-Cold-War powers, the United States decided to assist China in its transformation from a poverty-stricken country to a global manufacturer.

Fit for purpose? The patents regime, the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and sustainable development

This article uses data from several publicly available databases to show that the distribution of intellectual property for frontier technologies, including those useful for sustainable development, is very highly skewed in favor of a handful of developed countries. The intellectual property rights (IPR) regime as it exists does not optimize the global flow of technology and know-how for the attainment of the sustainable development goals and is in need of updating. Some features of the Fourth Industrial Revolution imply that the current system of patents is even more in need of reform than before. COVID-19 vaccines and therapies and the vast inequality in access to these has highlighted the costs of inaction. We recommend several policy changes for the international IPR regime. Broadly, these fall into three categories: allowing greater flexibility for developing countries, reassessing the appropriateness of patents for technologies that may be considered public goods, and closing loopholes that allow for unreasonable intellectual property protections.

Patent scenario of COVID-19 vaccines: A promising analysis and review of innovation and development

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a highly contagious infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has had a devastating effect on world demographics and emerged as a significant global health emergency since the influenza pandemic of 1918. It emphasized the significance of international cooperation in battling SARS-CoV-2 efficiently ever since the discovery and publication of the virus's genome in January 2020. The world took significant steps to combat the disease, ranging from increasing personal protective equipment production and emphasizing the importance of social distancing/masking to the Emergency Use Authorization of remdesivir/therapeutic antibodies. Despite significant advances in clinical research that have led to a better understanding of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 management, limiting the virus's and its variants' spread, has become a growing concern as SARS-CoV-2 continues to cause chaos around the world, with many countries experiencing a second or third wave of outbreaks attributed primarily due to the emergence of mutant virus variants. Considering the potential threat of this global outbreak, scientist and medics have rushed to identify possible treatment regimens and effective therapeutic drugs and vaccinations. As a matter of fact, several COVID-19 vaccines candidate have been researched, created, tested, and reviewed at a breakneck pace. Finding patents, examining relevant patents for current research activities and assessing them plays a key part for the best possible research and development before establishing and executing a trading strategy, especially with recent technology advancements. Therefore, to support current research and development we have evaluated patents relevant to various COVID-19 vaccine technology platforms. The aim of the present research work is to map the existing work through an analysis of patent literature in the field of Coronaviruses, particularly COVID-19 vaccines which will subsequently help the organization launch campaigns, as well as academics and research-driven institutions with the aid of patent literature information for a range of initiatives to combat this circulating demon.

Plants to drugs: A case study of human papilloma virus and traditional chinese medicine

Various types of viral diseases are emerging as the largest menace human beings have faced in the last few decades. Since the arrival of human immunodeficiency virus, the world has seen the emergence of deadly viruses like bird flu, Ebola, Nypah, Hanta, SARS, MERS, and currently the SARS-CoV-2. Other viral diseases like herpes, human papilloma virus, and hepatitis have become so common that despite their widespread infection rates, causes of liver and cervical cancer and consequent mortalities, they have not caught the attention of the general people in a way SARS-CoV-2 has done. Unlike small pox, polio, several types of hepatitis, and, to a certain extent, HPV, most other viral diseases have proved difficult to cure with vaccines or drugs. As with many other diseases, plants can form a possible source of therapeutics for HPV. There are around 250,000 species of flowering plants in the world;each species contain a range of phytochemicals with diverse pharmacological activities. For instance, over four dozen plants have been identified with antiviral activity against herpes virus, while a number of other plants and phytochemicals have shown promise against various viruses. Promising antiviral phytochemicals include coumarins, terpenoids, flavonoids, polyphenols, and alkaloids. This chapter will attempt to summarize the present state of knowledge regarding plants, formulations, and phytochemicals (against HPV) and discuss the potential of drug discovery from the promising phytochemicals. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022. All rights reserved.

Lessons from ArriveCAN: Access to Information and Justice During a Glitch

L'application ArriveCAN des services frontaliers du Canada, mandatee durant la pandemie de Covid-19 pour les voyageurs entrant au pays, a commence a envoyer des notifications de mise en quarantaine erronees ¿i certains utilisateurs dans le courant de l'été 2022. Le gouvernement federal a depiste une defaillance a l'origine de l'envoi de ces notifications erronees le 14 juillet 2022, et l'a remediee six jours plus tard. Neanmoins la reconnaissance publique de la defaillance par le gouvernement federal n'a eu lieu que quatre jours plus tard, soit 10 jours entiers apres en avoir pris connaissance. Durant cette periode, 10,200 personnes ont repu l'ordre errone de mise en quarantaine. Ces ordres ne constituaient pas des inconvenients mineurs. Au contraire, ces ordres etaient des restrictions physiques contraignant la mobilite et etaient assujettis aux pénalités maximales de la Loi sur la mise en quarantaine. L'emission d'ordres de quarantaine par une application qui depend de decisions automatisees et l'intelligence artificielle a suscite des soucis majeurs quant a l'utilisation obligatoire de cette technologie par le gouvernement federal. Cet article discute de cet episode du point de vue d'une partie a la recherche de la transparence et responsabilite du processus de decision d'ArriveCAN, et met en relief l'acces a l'information et les questions de justice decoulant de la defaillance, ainsi que la reponse du gouvernement federal. On discute de recommandations pour avancer dans le contexte de l'insistance gouvernementale sur l'utilisation de collecte de donnees obligatoire, la retention, et l'utilisation dans la prise de decisions automatisees et les systemes d'intelligence artificielle.Alternate :In summer 2022, ArriveCAN, Canada's border app mandated during the COVID-19 pandemic for travelers entering the country, began sending certain users erroneous notifications to quarantine. On July 14, 2022, the federal government identified a glitch that was responsible for sending these erroneous notifications and patched it six days later. However, the federal government only publicly acknowledged a glitch was responsible for sending the erroneous orders four days after that - a full 10 days after it had become aware of the problem. During that time, 10,200 people received erroneous quarantine orders. These orders were not minor inconveniences. They were physical restraints on mobility enforced through the maximum penalties of the Quarantine Act. The issuance of mandatory quarantine orders by an app reliant on automated decision-making and artificial intelligence raised elevated concerns about the mandatory use of such technologies by the federal government. This article describes this episode from the perspective of a party seeking transparency and accountability of ArriveCAN's decision-making and highlights the interrelated access to information and justice concerns generated by the glitch and the federal government's response to it. Recommendations are discussed for moving forward in the context of governmental insistence on the use of mandatory data collection, retention, and use in automated decision-making and artificial intelligence systems.

On the role of innovation and market structure on trade performance: is Schumpeter right?

PurposeThe goal of the paper is to examine the dynamics between innovation, market structure and trade performance. Firstly, the author first investigates the effects of innovation on trade performance. Secondly, the author then examines how market structure affect trade by classifying industries based on their innovation intensity.Design/methodology/approachThe author uses a detailed level data set of eight OECD countries in a panel of 17 industries from the STAN and ANBERD Database. The author employs both a pooled regression and a two-stage quantile regression analysis. The author first investigates the effects of innovation at the aggregate level, and then the author assesses the effects at the disaggregated or firm level.FindingsThe author finds that at the aggregate level, innovation and market size have a positive and significant effect on competitivity in most of the specifications. However, innovation is negatively associated with trade performance in the case of bilateral trade between Spain and the Netherlands. Also, the sectoral analysis provides evidence that the innovation-trade nexus depends on technological classification. The author shows that: (1) the effect of innovation activity on trade performance economic performance is lower for the high technology and high concentration (HTHC) market compared to the low technology (LT) market;(2) the impact of innovation on economic performance is ambiguous for firms in the high technology and low concentration (HTLC) market.Research limitations/implicationsAlthough the database provides a rich data set on industrial data, it fails to provide innovation output such as patent data which may underestimate the innovation activities of firms that do not have a separate R&D records. In the current context of subdue economic growth these research results have important policy implications. Firstly, the positive impact of innovation on trade performance strengthens its role for sustainable development. The negative coefficient on innovation is an indication that research intensity in some cases has not been able to create a new demand capable to boost economic performance.Practical implicationsThe market classification analysis provides new evidence that innovation in the LT market has the potential to enhance competition. Secondly, market size supports industries that are competing in the international market. Policy makers must therefore put in place incentives to encourage firms to grow in size if they want to remain globally competitive.Social implicationsSustainable development can be supported through investment in research and development in the low technology sector.Originality/valueThe study is the first as far as the author knows, to examine the impact of innovation on bilateral trade performance using industry level data from OECD countries. Secondly, the author complements the existing literature by examining how innovation activities (classified as high technological intensive or low technological intensive) affect trade performance.

EDUCATIONAL AND INNOVATIVE ELEMENTS OF HUMAN CAPITAL AND THEIR IMPACT ON ECONOMIC GROWTH

Human capital is an important factor for economic growth and the development of socio-economic systems. However, the appropriate expression of the value of human capital, the mechanism and its impact on economic development are still under discussion. It is hypothesised that there is a relationship between human capital and economic growth. To test this hypothesis, data on the group of Visegrad (V4) countries for the period 2000–2019 was analysed. The study examines the presence of a causal link between some attributes of human capital and economic growth and the conditions, under which its positive effects can be expected based on statistical methods. It also deals with the role and the applicability of some of its characteristics to express the impact of human capital on economic growth. The model revealed a positive, statistically significant relationship between gross domestic product per capita and the innovative capacity of human capital and the qualifications of employees. The impact of tools for human capital creation and development extends over a longer period and is reduced by the simultaneous action of other labour market factors. Currently, economies are affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Corresponding changes are also noticeable in the way work is done, with more weight on the home office. It will be interesting to examine how this transformation will affect economic growth. The changes in the position of employees and the care of companies for human capital are also a good topic for further research that can be conducted every few years. © Daňová M., Širá E. Text. 2023.

Hearing Happiness: Deafness Cures in History by Jaipreet Virdi (review)

The book begins with bacterial meningitis, an infection the author contracted in early childhood that left her with "profound-to-severe" hearing loss (Virdi, 7). Not only do we see her as a scholar in the archive, requesting permission to try a Victorian ear trumpet, we also see her as a child with her d/Deaf classmates, being fitted for hearing aids "as we squirmed and giggled when the wet silicone mold was injected into our ears," and as an adult, experiencing difficulty switching from analog to digital hearing aids (258). When Virdi's first pair of behindthe-ear hearing aids make her six-year-old ears stick out, and her hair "tied in a long braid as per the Sikh tradition, did little to disguise them," it is the hearing aids, not the braid, that provoke "snickers, puzzled glances, and finger-pointing from younger children" (18).

Bayh-Dole at 40: Accomplishments, Challenges, and Possible Reforms.

Over forty years have passed since the enactment of the Patent and Trademark Amendment (Bayh-Dole) Act, which authorized institutions to patent inventions arising from federally-funded research. Although some experts have heralded the Bayh-Dole Act as ushering in a new era of technological advances, others have been less sanguine about its impact. In recent years, the rising price of prescription drugs and the patenting of COVID-19 therapeutics and vaccines developed with substantial federal government support have rekindled the debate whether companies should receive more restricted rights to such products. In this article, we trace the history leading to the enactment of the Bayh-Dole Act and critically assess its strength and weaknesses as well as unresolved questions concerning its scope. Based on this analysis, we propose reforms to better align the Bayh-Dole Act with public values and health outcomes, including clarifying the scope of government use rights, making it easier to invoke march-in rights for failure to meet health and safety needs, increasing transparency in how patents are licensed, and testing different approaches to foster the development and application of inventions.

LETTER TO THE READERS

Kariko was eventually demoted in rank at UPenn for lack of grants, but is now a senior vice president at BioNTech, a German biotechnology company that was co-founded by a pair of Turkish married physicians at Mainz University. In particular, a recent letter to the government has asserted the importance of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases' mRNA-1273 as a critical part of the invention and the contributors to numerous other patents which may have been funded by taxpayers. The key to this approach is translocation of the artificial mRNA coding for proteins of interest to the cytoplasm, transcription by the ribosome, and protein overproduction (as in the anti-spike protein antibodies).

Compulsory licensing: an effective tool for securing access to Covid-19 vaccines for developing states?

A significant issue in combatting the Covid-19 pandemic is the need to enhance developing states' access to Covid-19 vaccines. The present paper considers the request for a temporary waiver of intellectual property rights in relation to Covid-19 technologies and treatments submitted to the World Trade Organization and analyses a key argument against the proposed waiver: that the compulsory licensing provisions set out in the TRIPS Agreement are sufficiently flexible to help states get access to vaccines. The compulsory licensing flexibilities set out in TRIPS, including the amendment to TRIPS in Article 31bis, are evaluated, to explore whether compulsory licensing could be an effective tool in helping developing states to access Covid-19 vaccines. Key issues are explored from a human rights perspective to examine whether a rights-based approach to the compulsory licensing provisions could offer further insights as to how the provisions could be more workable, to enhance access to medicines and vaccines for developing states.

Universal access to vaccines in post-COVID bioeconomy: Redesign for variants of concern and patent protection

The new global eco-social and economic conditions, aggravated by extreme poverty, accelerated urbanization and intensification of populational mobility into disruptive ecological niches, have had a dramatic impact on the patterns of infectious disease emergence and transmission worldwide. These changing conditions, in spite of all alerts from scientists since the 1990s, have favored the emergence of pandemic or potentially pandemic diseases such as COVID-19 and their related variants. This scenario has been aggravated by the highly restricted global access to COVID-19 vaccine doses, with 75% of doses currently concentrated in just 10 developed countries and by the extremely low availability of the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (IFA) restricted to few manufacturers, mainly in 2 countries: India and China. This extreme concentration has been intensified by bans and restrictions to vaccine exports by several countries (United States, European Union and India). In this chapter the authors alert on the dramatic consequences of this extreme concentration scenario, since universal access to vaccines is the only way to achieve herd immunity from immunization. They also alert that probably COVID-19 will persist in seasonal outbreaks, in the same way as Influenza, requiring annual immunizations for vaccine and vaccine redesign for new variants, which supports the crucial importance of universal access to vaccines. This need for vaccine development and redesign will require, besides innovation strategies, an exponential increase in funding and novel incentives for vaccine innovation and development ("patent pools” and awards), supported by technological transfer agreements to developing countries' manufacturers. We discuss SARS-CoV-2 variants and nucleic acid COVID-19 vaccine technologies, examining applied patents in the world and BRICS' countries applications. © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The WTO and the Covid‐19 "Vaccine Apartheid”: Big Pharma and the Minefield of Patents

Unequal access to vaccines for the Covid‐19 pandemic, also referred to as "vaccine apartheid,” has marginalized low‐income countries again. In October 2020, India and South Africa proposed a temporary waiver from certain provisions of the TRIPS Agreement for the prevention of Covid‐19 at the World Trade Organization (WTO). An agreement was later reached in Geneva on June 17, 2022. The objective of this article is to analyze the negotiation and agreement reached at the WTO. This article explores the difficulties of creating international public good in the field of public health within the milieu of powerful actors, namely big pharmaceutical companies with vested interests. The central argument of this article is that this agreement alone will not solve the vaccine access problem for low‐income countries. It is too restrictive, does not cover trade secrets and know‐how, production capacity, availability of raw materials, and even adds new limitations that did not exist before. The best option to promote the production of quality vaccines in low‐income countries is to share technology and know‐how on a voluntary basis through production agreements. One way to facilitate the cooperation of large pharmaceutical corporation is to make it easier for low‐income countries to use compulsory licenses. Simplifying the use of this mechanism could help encourage pharmaceutical companies to enter into voluntary licensing agreements. © 2023 by the author(s);licensee Cogitatio Press (Lisbon, Portugal).

Intellectual Property Management in Healthcare Using Robotic Process Automation During COVID-19

In the current scenario, when the whole world is under stress due to the upcoming variant of the Novel Corona Virus, the Healthcare system, earlier practiced in the traditional mode, has been replaced in Digital mode with various scientific innovations like robotics which shows new thinking of perception among the people how it works in reality. Robotic Process Automation referred to as RPA, plays a significant role in today's healthcare system. The authors, through this chapter, seek to discuss the advancement of Robotic Process Automation and its link with Intellectual Property Management elaborately. The chapter begins with the authors tracing recent developments of Robotics in Healthcare through automation during COVID-19 as it has significant inception. Secondly, the authors also elaborate on how the management of IP assets created out of such a digital revolution due to accelerated and ramped-up innovation comes into the picture quite significantly. It shall enable the readers to gradually grasp the connection between the two fields. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Phytomedicines for Covid-19: Opportunities and Obstacles

COVID-19 is a disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 that can trigger respiratory tract infection. Due to its tendency to affect the upper respiratory tract (sinuses, nose and throat) or lower respiratory tract (windpipe and lungs), this disease is life-threatening and affects a large number of populations. This virus's unique and complex nature enhances the scope to look into the direction of herbal plants and their constituents for its prevention and treatment. The herbal remedies can have preventive as well as therapeutic actions. This review focuses on various aspects of using herbal medicines for COVID-19, as herbal constituents may also have adverse effects. Various studies revealed that some medicinal plants show life-threatening adverse effects, so selecting plants, and their related studies should be appropriate and strategic. This article includes various factors that should be considered before herbal drug use in COVID-19 patients. These are clinical trials, safety, molecular mechanism, and self-medication, which have been elaborated. This article also discusses the targets of covid-19 and different coronavirus strains. As before, treatment diagnosis of the disease is very important. Various patents have been filed and granted for its proper diagnosis so that its treatment can be easy.Copyright © 2022 Society of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research. All rights reserved.

News

This section offers gastrointestinal health-related news briefs as of February 1, 2023, including a study which found that plant-based diet could reduce bowel cancer risk in men, a study which showed that the COVID-19 virus may have a profound effect on the gut microbiome balance, and the call by Coeliac UK for manufacturers to sign up for its labelling scheme in support of research which found that 76% of gluten-free consumers want to be labelled with the Crossed Grain trademark.

Improving access to COVID-19 vaccines: an analysis of TRIPS waiver discourse among WTO members, civil society organizations, and pharmaceutical industry stakeholders. (Special Issue: COVID-19 vaccine equity and human rights.)

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, international access to COVID-19 vaccines and other health technologies has remained highly asymmetric. This inequity has had a particularly deleterious impact on low- and middle-income countries, engaging concerns about the human rights to health and to the equal enjoyment of the benefits of scientific progress enshrined under articles 12 and 15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. In response, the relationship between intellectual property rights and public health has reemerged as a subject of global interest. In October 2020, a wholesale waiver of the copyright, patent, industrial design, and undisclosed information sections of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS Agreement) was proposed by India and South Africa as a legal mechanism to increase access to affordable COVID-19 medical products. Here, we identify and evaluate the TRIPS waiver positions of World Trade Organization (WTO) members and other key stakeholders throughout the waiver's 20-month period of negotiation at the WTO. In doing so, we find that most stakeholders declined to explicitly contextualize the TRIPS waiver within the human right to health and that historical stakeholder divisions on the relationship between intellectual property and access to medicines appear largely unchanged since the early 2000s HIV/AIDS crisis. Given the WTO's consensus-based decision-making process, this illuminates key challenges faced by policy makers seeking to leverage the international trading system to improve equitable access to health technologies.