Timo Minssen

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Timo Minssen is Professor of Law at the University of Copenhagen (UCPH), and the Founding Director of UCPH's Center for Advanced Studies in Bioscience Innovation Law (CeBIL). He is also an LML Research Affiliate at the University of Cambridge (UK), and an Inter-CeBIL Research Affiliate, Petrie-Flom Centre for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School (US). His research, supervision, teaching & part-time advisory practice concentrates on Intellectual Property-, Competition & Regulatory Law, as well as on the law & ethics of emerging health & life science technologies, such as genome editing, big data, artificial intelligence and quantum technology. This involves a plethora of legal issues emerging during the lifecycle of relevant products and processes -  from the sustainable regulation of R&D and incentives for innovation to responsible technology transfer and commercialization. Based on both his academic and practical experience from law firms, courts & life science start-ups, Timo serves as a member of several international committees and as an advisor to the WHO, WIPO, EU Commission, various organizations, companies, national governments and law firms. He presents his research at international symposia, major law firms, the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Hong Kong & Tokyo,  Harvard Law School, Harvard Business School, Stanford Law School, Yale, MIT, the Broad institute, as well as at the  WHO, WIPO, European Medicines Agency and National Ehics Councils etc. His publications comprise 7 books, as well as 200+ articles and book chapters. Timo's research has been featured in i.a. The Economist, The Financial Times, El Mundo, Politico, WHO Bulletin, Times of India & Times Higher Education, and published in leading journals, such as Science, JAMA, NEJM Catalyst, Harvard Business Review, Harvard Business Manager, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Genetics, Nature Electronics, Nature PJ Digital Medicine, The Lancet Digital Health, PLoS-Computational Biology, Biotech. J., Drug Discovery, JLB, BLR, Person.Med., IIC, EIPR, ECLR, JIPLP, GRUR Int., Chi.-Kent J. Intell. Prop., IPQ, QMJIP, NIR & EUConst.LR. He is also a regular contributor on Harvard Law School's "Bill of Health" blog. 

Main research area

• AI & Big Data in the Health & Life Sciences
• Sustainable and responsible innovation & tech transfer
• Pharmaceutical-, Life Science- & Biotech Law
• Comparative European & US Patent Law
• Intellectual Property Law & Open Innovation
• EU Competition- & US Antitrust Law

Fields of interest

• Law & ethics
• Synthetic Biology & Nanotechnology
• Law & (Emerging) Technologies, including AI and quantum tech
• EU Law
• Medical & Health Law
• E-Health & Big Data

Appointments

• Director & Founder, Centre for Advanced Studies in Bioscience Innovation Law (CeBIL)
• Inter-CeBIL Research Affiliate, Petrie-Flom Centre for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School (US)
• TUM Global Visiting Professor, Technical University of Munich (Germany)
• LML Research Affiliate, University of Cambridge (UK)
• PI & grant holder of the Novo Nordisk Foundation's International Collaborative Bioscience Innovation & Law  (Inter-CeBIL) Programme.
• Chair & Steering Committee member, Stakeholder Consortium of AMR Social Science Research Centres (INAMRSS) at the Global AMR R&D Hub, BMBF, Berlin 
• Scientific Progamme Committee Member, WHO/Norwegian Oslo Medicines Initiative
• Expert advisor, WHO Digital Health & COVID-19 Law & Ethics Committees.
• Advisory Board Member, Munich IP Law Center (MIPLC)
• Senior Advisor, X-Officio, Support for ERICs, Research Infrastructures & their Business Partners.
• IP Advisory Board Member, Chr. Hansen A/S
• Scientific Advisory Board Member for Harvard Law School project "Diagnosing in the Home: The Ethical, Legal, and Regulatory Challenges and Opportunities of Digital Home Health"
• Board Member, Nordic Permed Law
• Scientific Advisory Board Member, Influenz-er project: Rethinking Pandemic Preparedness & Response, see: https://innovationsfonden.dk/da/investeringer/investeringshistorier/virtuelle-indlaeggelser-og-selvmonitorering-skal-aflaste
• Invited health sector expert, EU Commission High Level AI Group.
• Member of the International Expert Panel of the Genetic Discrimination Observatory (GDO).
• Scientific Advisory Board member of the Copenhagen Centre for Regulatory Sciences (CORS).
• Steering Committee Member, German Research Project "Rechtsschutz biologischer Innovationen und Erfindungen" at Max Planck Institute for Innovation & Competition.
• Steering Committee Member of the Danish Association for the Protection of Industrial Property.
• Steering Committee Member of the Danish Life Science Law Association (LifeScienceLaw.DK).
• Legal member of Copenhagen Health Science Partners- Clinical Academic Group (CAG)- Precision Diagnostics in Cardiology.

Past appointments

• Expert Board Member of EU Commission study on the economic impact of pharma incentives.
• Head of the Copenhagen Biotech & Pharma Forum (CBPF- 2012-2016) 
• Legal member of COST Action IS1303 Citizen's Health through public-private Initiatives: Public health, Market and Ethical perspectives (CHIP ME)
• Expert member of the "ERA SynBio" Intiative & Network for Synthetic Biology (funded by the EU Commission)
• Legal expert member of the "ERASysAPP" Network for Systems Biology Applications (funded by the EU Commission)
• Member of UCPH's summer school programme committee
• Member of the Faculty's PhD committee (suppleant)

Research management

1. Novo Nordisk Foundation's International Collaborative Bioscience Innovation & Law  (Inter-CeBIL) Programme (PI & grant recipient, 50 million DKK).
2. CLASSICA: EU Horizon Project on AI-assisted surgery (coPI)
3. AI@Care: Law and Ethics and Algorithmic Bias in Healthcare (Principal Investigator)
4. KU Sustainability in Drug Development Network (grant co-recipient & steering committee member)
5. SSHRC (Canadian Research Council) partnership grant:Global strategies to manage the global antimicrobial commons in a sustainable, acceptable, fair and effective (SAFE) manner (coPI , leader of CeBIL team)

Completed:

1. PI & grant recipient: Novo Nordisk Foundation's Collaborative Research Programme in Biomedical Innovation Law (2018-2023, grant size: ca. 5 mill EUR).
2. The Quantum Law Project, Wallenberg (WASP-HS) Project at Lund University (coPI)
3. Principal Investigator: Global genes, local concerns: Legal, ethical and scientific challenges in cross-national biobanking and translational exploitation,  (total grant size: ca. 3,6 mill EUR)
4. coPI, steering committee member & WP leader: CoNEXT - Fertilizing the ground and harvesting the full potential of the new neutron and X-ray research infrastructures close to UCPH -  & steering committee member (total grant size: ca. 3,7 mill EUR)
5. coPI, steering committeee member and WP leader: BioSYNergy - towards a Bio-Based Society (total grant: ca. 3,7 mill EUR)
6. AdManI: Additive Manufacturing and Innovation: Technical, Economic, Legal, and Policy Related Aspects of Rising Technologies (International Research Partner)
7. User Generated Law: Re-constructing Law in the Knowledge Society (coPI, WP leader)
8. Co-supervisor for a PhD thesis and collaborator in an interdisciplinary research project on "Counterfeit Medicines" (in co-operation with the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences).
9. Co-supervisor for a PhD thesis and collaborator in an interdisciplinary research project on "Regulation of Biosimilars" (in co-operation with the Copenhagen Centre for Regulatory Sciences (CORS) and the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences

Editorial tasks

 

• Member of the Editorial Board of the European Pharmaceutical Law Review (EPLR).

 

Peer-review

• IIC- International Review of Intellectual Property and Competition Law
• Science
• The Lancet
• Journal of Law and the Biosciences 
• European Pharmaceutical Law Review
• QMJIP- Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property
• PLOS Biology

 

PhD students

• Mattias Karlsson Dinnetz, Patenting Personalised Medicine in Europe, In collaboration with Faculty of Law at KU Leuven (co-supervisor)
• Leonard Floryan, Antimirobial Resistance and Pull Incentives (co-supervisor)

Completed:

• Hrefna Dögg Gunnarsdóttir - Transparent data use in biomedical research (supervisor)
• Behrang Kianzad - Excessive prices, competition law & compulsory licenses in the pharma sector (main supervisor, 2022)
• Louise Christine Druedahl -  The Current and Evolving European Regulation of Biosimilars: Views from Industry & Medicines Agency Regulaors (co-supervisor, 2021)
• Vadym Semenov -Denying prohibitory injunctive relief in patent disputes: grounds and justifications (co-supervisor, 2019)
• Olga Kokoulina - Standard Essential Patents and Injunctive Relief: Moving towards a holistic approach (supervisor, 2017. Recipient of Carlsberg Foundation postdoc fellowship).
• Jakob Blak Wested - Applying Patents & Imagining Openness - Patenting enabling technologies in synthetic biology:  the case of CRISPR (supervisor, 2017)
• Rasmus Borup - Fighting for Patient Safety: A qualitative case study of the role of private stakeholders and national authorities in the making of the EU Falsified Medicines Directive (co supervisor, 2016).

PostDocs related to past and ongoing research projects

• Ana Nordberg (BioSYNergy)
• Torsten Bjørn Larsen (CoNEXT)
• Helen Yu (CoNEXT)
• Jakob Wested (CeBIL)
• Louise Druedahl (CeBIL & CLASSICA)
• Christy Kollmar (CeBIL)
• Behrang Kianzad (CeBIL)
• Marcelo Corrales Compagnucci (CeBIL)
• Audrey Lebret (Data+)

Teaching

• European Pharmaceutical Law, IPR & the Life Sciences (UCPH - Course Director)
• EU Health and Medical law (UCPH - Course Coordinator) 
• European Intellectual Property Law & Policy in an International Context (UCPH - Course Coordinator)
• EU Law & the High Tech Industries (Guest Lecturer at Lund University)
• Advanced Competition Law: Competition and Innovation (Guest Lectures at Lund University)

Teaching in courses for Professionals and PhD -students

• Copenhagen Summer University: Pharmaceutical Law & Policy (UCPH- Course Director).
• Innovation and intellectual property rights in biotechnology- Course for PhD-students, industrial biotechnologists and faculty in biotech patenting and entrepreneurship.
• Health Innovation - HealthZup - ideas for the future – new PhD course in innovation developed by the Faculty of Health Sciences at UCPH.  
• Information and Innovation law – Methodological Issues – organizer in collaboration with Professor Jens Schovsbo & CIIR.
• Interdisciplinary aspects in biobanking
• KU Faculty of Law - PhD Introductory Course on Methodology and Research Methods.
• Basic PhD course in the Danish Legal Research & Education Programme

Selected publications

1. Published

   Mayo’s impact on patent applications related to biotechnology, diagnostics and personalized medicine

   Aboy, M., Crespo, C., Liddell, K., Minssen, Timo & Liddicoat, J., May 2019, In: Nature Biotechnology. 37, p. 513-518 6 p.

   Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

2. Published

   Knowledge transfer for large scale vaccine manufacturing

   Price II, W. N., Rai, A. & Minssen, Timo, 13 Aug 2020, In: Science. 369, 6506, p. 912-914

   Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

3. Published

   Rules and Tools in the Battle against Superbugs - A call for integrated strategies and enhanced international collaboration to promote antimicrobial drug development

   Minssen, Timo & Nordberg, A., 18 May 2020, Infectious Diseases in the New Millennium: Legal and Ethical Challenges. Eccleston-Turner, M. & Brassington, I. (eds.). Springer, p. 111-136 26 p.

   Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Book chapter › Research › peer-review

4. Published

   The problem with antibiotics

   Darrow, J. & Minssen, Timo, May 2019, In: The Economist. 431, 9144, p. 20 1 p.

   Research output: Contribution to journal › Letter › Research

5. Published

   Ethical and legal issues of ingestible electronic sensors

   Gerke, S., Minssen, Timo, Yu, H. & Cohen, G., 15 Aug 2019, In: Nature Electronics . 2, 8, p. 329–334 5 p.

   Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

6. Published

   Global Genes, Local Concerns: Legal, Ethical and Scientific Challenges in International Biobanking

   Minssen, Timo, Herrmann, Janne Rothmar & Schovsbo, Jens Hemmingsen, Apr 2019, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. 304 p.

   Research output: Book/Report › Book › Research

7. Published

   Shadow health records meet new data privacy laws

   Price II, W. N., Spector-Bagdady, K., Minssen, Timo & Kaminski, M., 1 Feb 2019, In: Science. 363, 6426, p. 448-450 3 p.

   Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

8. Published

   An "export-only" exception to pharmaceutical patents in Europe: Should the U.S. follow suit?

   Minssen, Timo, Kesselheim, A. & Darrow, J., 3 Jan 2019, In: Nature Biotechnology. 37, 1, p. 21-22 2 p.

   Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

9. Published

   Germany’s Digital Health Reforms in the COVID-19 Era: Lessons and Opportunities for Other Countries

   Gerke, S., Stern, A. & Minssen, Timo, 10 Jul 2020, In: Nature PJ Digital Medicine. 3, p. 1-6 6 p., 94.

   Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

10. Published

    How does emerging patent case law in the US and Europe affect precision medicine? How will today’s patent law affect tomorrow’s innovation in the areas of biomarkers and nature-based products; diagnostics; and algorithms, big data and AI?

    Aboy, M., Cohen, G., Liddell, K., Liddicoat, J., Crespo, C., Gerke, S. & Minssen, Timo, 2 Oct 2019, In: Nature Biotechnology. 37, 10, p. 1118–1125 8 p.

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

11. Published

    The European Artificial Intelligence Strategy: Implications and Challenges for Digital Health

    Cohen, G., Evgeniou, T., Gerke, S. & Minssen, Timo, 23 Jun 2020, In: The Lancet Digital Health. 2, 7, p. 376-379

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

12. Published

    Regulatory responses to medical machine learning

    Minssen, Timo, Gerke, S., Aboy, M., Price II, W. N. & Cohen, G., Apr 2020, In: Journal of Law and the Biosciences . 7, 1, p. 1-18 18 p.

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

Selected activities

1. Ethical Licensing for CRISPR: Exploring the Opportunities for Responsible Licensing Mechanisms to Restore Trust

   Van Zimmeren, E. (Speaker) & Minssen, Timo (Speaker)

   4 Mar 2019

   Activity: Talk or presentation types › Lecture and oral contribution

2. CTD Transparency and Commercial Confidentiality according to the CJEU’s Case Law (Basel)

   Minssen, Timo (Invited speaker)

   27 Feb 2019

   Activity: Talk or presentation types › Lecture and oral contribution

3. Scientific, Regulatory & Legal Dimensions of Recent Advances in Gene Editing

   Minssen, Timo (Organizer)

   4 Mar 2019

   Activity: Participating in an event - types › Organisation of and participation in conference

4. The Proposed EU IP Exception for Generics & Biosimilars Exports - A Cure Worse Than the Disease? (at UC Irvine)

   Minssen, Timo (Invited speaker)

   8 Feb 2019

   Activity: Talk or presentation types › Lecture and oral contribution

5. The CeBIL Center at the University of Copenhagen: Future plans & potential collaborations with BU's Institute for Health System Innovation & Policy (IHSIP) & the Social Innovation on Drug Resistance Program (Boston-SIDR)

   Minssen, Timo (Invited speaker)

   4 Feb 2019

   Activity: Talk or presentation types › Lecture and oral contribution

6. Confessions of a party crasher: Artificial Intelligence and the Law(yer)

   Minssen, Timo (Invited speaker)

   31 Jan 2019

   Activity: Talk or presentation types › Lecture and oral contribution

7. Rättsliga aspekter av AI inom health och life sciences (Legal aspects of AI in the Health & Life Sciences)

   Minssen, Timo (Invited speaker)

   28 Jan 2019

   Activity: Talk or presentation types › Lecture and oral contribution

Selected prizes

1. King Oscar award for best Jur. Dr. thesis

   Minssen, Timo (Recipient), Apr 2014

   Prize: Prizes, scholarships, distinctions

2. Jorcks Fonds Forsknings Pris (Jorck's Foundation Research Prize)

   Minssen, Timo (Recipient), 2017

   Prize: Prizes, scholarships, distinctions

3. Awapatent Research Prize

   Minssen, Timo (Recipient), 2009

   Prize: Prizes, scholarships, distinctions