On Thu, Jul 1, 2010 at 12:15 AM, Julian Todd <[email protected]>wrote:
> I've discovered that in the oil and gas sector, essentially all the > data is open and public. No one conceals that they have found a > productive well or how much was there. Have a look round the data > available from Norway > http://www.npd.no/en/news/Exploration-drilling-results/ > > There's equivalent UK data, but it's much less structured. Drilling > holes is expensive enough that the industry cannot afford to waste > time not using the very best data -- even if it does mean larger > companies can't dump on smaller companies by withholding useful data > from them. > This is useful material for us to show the value of collaboration - perhaps we should keep an adhoc set of stories > > I'd draw a very close analogy between oil exploration and > pharmaceuticals -- no one knows exactly where all the oil fields are, > just as no one knows which chemicals work as effective drugs. There's > a large element of detective work, derived from the experimental data > (the more the better). They bid for the rights to exploit the fields. > > The reason why the pharmaceutical industry can get away with their > structure of waste is they can afford it and defend it. No one can > challenge it, because there is no common space. Every pharmaceutical > company could be assigning its 100 research scientists into the same > dry area while avoiding completely wide open untapped sectors, but you > can't make it visible in the way you can with oil rigs on a map. > I think there are objective differences. The primary IP in pharma is patenting a lead compound and the compounds round it. I've been in areas where the competition has beaten us by a week to file the patent. And one public disclosure of any compound can invalidate the patent. So I'm more sympathetic to defending secrecy on the primary invention - but not on the background knowledge > > -- Peter Murray-Rust Reader in Molecular Informatics Unilever Centre, Dep. Of Chemistry University of Cambridge CB2 1EW, UK +44-1223-763069
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