Publications

The Stockholm Network and FAES Foundation are pleased to announce the publication of the Spanish version of The State of the Union or El Estado de la Union.

From the first issue of The State of Union (published in 2005) to this follow-up edition (published in English in April 2008), we have witnessed quite a number of political and economic changes in the EU. With this joint initiative, FAES and the Stockholm Network provide the Spanish speaking world with an analysis of the market-oriented economic reforms that have taken place in the European Union member countries up to early 2008.

Yet, in the past few months, the global financial crisis has threatened the achievements of many EU countries, which have successfully managed to embrace these reforms during the past few years.

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One of the most fundamental problems in public discussion of European intellectual property (IP) policies is the shortage of information about the specific composition of an IP environment, relevant to Europe’s high tech industries (in general), and the information technology (IT) sector in particular. In order to narrow this gap, in 2006 the Stockholm Network developed an innovative statistical index aimed at measuring the strength of intellectual property rights (IPRs) in the IT sector in different countries. The Stockholm Network has now updated the index for 2008-2009.

This twelfth edition of Climate of Opinion is dedicated to the Arctic and takes a closer look at the multitude of security and environmental challenges facing the region. It contains the following articles:

• Commentary – The Arctic: conflict or cooperation – Gulya Isyanova
  
• The Melting Cog – Rachel Chu
  
• Clashing Styles in the Arctic – International Law or fait accompli – Matt Stone
  
• Geopolitics in the Arctic: The Russian Security Perspective – Dr Katarzyna Zysk
  
• Climate Change and Arctic Economies – Richard Campanaro
  
• Microclimates – Top stories in energy and environment

This winter issue of Eye on Europe looks at a range of topics that pertain to getting Europe`s economy back on track. The leading articles, along with updates on Stockholm Network`s new Lisbon Barometer, touch on two important and highly topical issues - financial regulation and innovation.

The newsletter also reviews historian Niall Ferguson`s new book The Ascent of Money, which provides a timely reminder of the history of money and some of the pitfalls of handling it.

We are also pleased to announce that we have recently added several new member think tanks to our network, including the Murray Rothbard Institute in Belgium and the Institute for Innovation & Valuation in Health Care in Germany, both of whom are profiled in this issue.

This issue looks east, focusing on the health care systems of Central and Eastern Europe and Greece. With contributors from across the region, it includes the following articles:

• Seeing Ahead? – Helen Disney
  
• Slovak Reform sets V4 Rolling – Peter Pažitný
  
• Healthcare System Reform: The Romanian Patient – Bogdan Lazarescu
  
• A Survey of the Greek Health Care System – Savvas Parselias
  
• Health Reform in the Czech Republic: Should hospitals and health insurers be privatized? – Jiří Schlanger vs. Lucie Bryndova
  
• New initiatives and publications

In this paper, Ross and Stuart Carroll examine the current issues and challenges facing the UK pharmaceutical industry, traditionally a strategic industry in the UK economy. The paper highlights changing market conditions – the fall of the `blockbuster` drug, the rise of counterfeit drugs, and increased demand for generics, personalised medicines and preventative medicinal products – as well as new sources of competition from emerging markets. It also looks at institutional challenges, including the UK`s tax environment and its pricing and reimbursement system. The paper further points to supply-side issues, specifically falling investment in scientific education and skills.

This paper complements the Lisbon Barometer by putting the key findings of the Barometer in context and explaining how they were reached. The paper provides a historical overview of the Lisbon Agenda, what were the factors leading up to its announcement, and how the Agenda has evolved over the last eight years. It also explains the methodology behind the Barometer and how the different statistical categories were developed. The paper’s central recommendation is that the European Commission move away from viewing Lisbon I and II as a pan-European project requiring EU-wide targets and goals. Instead, the diversity, different aspirations and varying requirements of each individual Member State should be embraced.

With both the eurozone and the UK now entering a recession, the moment could hardly be more timely to examine how much progress has been made since our last report. In this new project - the Lisbon Barometer - the Stockholm Network has statistically measured the specific effects of the Lisbon Agenda reform effort and subsequently outlines policy recommendations based on these measures. By using nineteen statistical categories – some used by the European Commission itself and some picked to supplement the Commission`s measures – covering both standard and less traditional areas of innovation and competition, the Barometer monitors and ranks the progress of nine EU countries towards meeting the specific and general goals of the original Lisbon Agenda of 2000 and the more recent Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Jobs.

This edition of Know IP contains the following articles:

• Commentary – Some declarations just don’t make sense – on software and standards – Meir Pugatch and Helen Disney
  
• Topic of the Month – Top of the league – The challenge of being the best – Paul Healy
  
• Experts’ Corner – IPRs and SMEs: Does public policy adequately support small firms on IPR matters? – Alfred Radauer
  
• Views – China & the Olympics: Was it gold for IPRs? – Sloane Ebersole
  
• Event – Evidence-Based Policy in the Field of Intellectual Property Rights: Using Cutting-Edge Research to Improve Intellectual Property Policymaking – Stockholm Network Workshop
  
• New publications - Courting Confusion? Where is Canada’s Intellectual Property Policy Heading? – by David Torstensson and Dr Meir Pugatch, and If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It. A Discussion Paper on the Benefits of the Voluntary Market-Driven Approach to Innovation – by Dr Meir Pugatch
  
• News Flashes – Top stories in the world of IP and competition

In this paper the Stockholm Network explores the concept of spending limits within HTA bodies and so-called thresholds. The paper finds that even in countries where the use of HTA is advanced, stakeholders of the respective health systems have no way of knowing what rationale HTA decisions are really based on. HTA bodies in the world typically avoid defining clearly (and even intentionally avoid making public) what threshold they are using to determine the cost-effectiveness of a given treatment. Yet this does not necessarily have to be the case.