Innovativeness Of The Polish Health Sector A Patent Analytics Study

The Polish health related patenting increased rapidly in the last decade making Poland the top CEE economy. Still, most of the filings remain only national, making Poland just a small share of the EU total and relatively less specialized than other EU countries. A limited number of higher education applicants accounted for 42 percent of patents and utility models, with a clear specialization in pharmaceutical technologies. Most private applicants were SMEs and individuals specialized in medtech. The innovative activity is concentrated in a few provinces and cities. Polish health related innovation is a collaborative although mostly domestic effort. Poland’s pharmaceutical specialization is on non-biological preparations (42%) and new chemical compounds (31%); while the medtech specialization is in diagnosis and surgery (34%) and prostheses, stents and orthopedic (18%).

This working paper aims to present the specifics of innovation in the Polish health industry through the prism of the experiences and opinions of a representative group of 42 companies from both the pharmaceutical and medtech sectors. Through analysis of in-depth interviews, it aims to illuminate the legal, economic and social mechanisms and phenomena that determine innovation in this sector. The survey examines which areas of the Polish health sector are most innovative, the understanding of innovation that prevails in the sector, and the characteristics of R&D activities carried out there. Subsequently, the study explores the general impact of intellectual property, and particularly of patent law on innovation, in the Polish health sector. Finally, it surveys the other economic and legal instruments currently stimulating innovation and how legal regulations and governmental policy could be modified to create an optimal pro-innovation environment. The conclusions include short legal and factual background of innovation in the Polish health sector, the summarized results of the conducted analysis and final comments concerning the level and culture of innovation within the examined industry.

This paper analyzes the recent economic and innovation trends of the health industries in Poland. The health industries have observed remarkable growth since entering into the EU. While the pharmaceutical industry faces some economic slowdown since 2011, the medtech industry shows substantial dynamism for its small size. The Polish health industry has still much to do to improve its innovation status. However, the observed trend of the innovation dynamics is cause for optimism. Polish firms in the health industries are increasingly innovating and extracting economic results from these innovations.

This paper analyzes the recent economic and innovation trends of the health industries in Poland. The health industries have observed remarkable growth since entering into the EU. While the pharmaceutical industry faces some economic slowdown since 2011, the medtech industry shows substantial dynamism for its small size. The Polish health industry has still much to do to improve its innovation status. However, the observed trend of the innovation dynamics is cause for optimism. Polish firms in the health industries are increasingly innovating and extracting economic results from these innovations.

This study seeks to reinforce the understanding of the interplay between the distinct policy domains of health, trade and intellectual property, and of how they affect medical innovation and access to medical technologies. The second edition comprehensively reviews new developments in key areas since the initial launch of the study in 2013.

This study has emerged from an ongoing program of trilateral cooperation between WHO, WTO and WIPO. It responds to an increasing demand, particularly in developing countries, for strengthened capacity for informed policy-making in areas of intersection between health, trade and IP, focusing on access to and innovation of medicines and other medical technologies.

The economic consequences of migration are hotly debated and a main topic of recent political movements across Europe. We analyze Polish immigration in the context of the 2004 enlargement of the European Union and find a positive and significant spillover effect of the immigrants on the number of local inventors in German counties in 2001-2010. For causal identification, we exploit a historical episode in the Polish migration history to Germany before the fall of the Iron Curtain and construct a shift-share instrument. Our results differ from findings for high-skilled migration to the United States, which is particularly interesting as Polish immigration to Germany was not based on selection by qualification in our period of analysis.

This paper provides an analysis of global patenting trends using the most comprehensive data currently available. Among other things, it finds that subsequent patent filings – additional filings of the same invention, mostly in additional countries – contributed considerably to the growth in filings worldwide, pointing to globalization as one important driver of filing growth. However, no single factor can fully explain the marked increase in the use of the patent system.