Clause 5 - Income Generation
Health and Social Care Bill
6:45 pm
Mr John Denham (Minister of State, Department of Health; Southampton, Itchen, Labour)
The hon. Gentleman asked about management skills. The primary intention of the clause is to enable the NHS and Department of Health bodies to exploit intellectual property in innovation generated by staff, essentially through the development of so-called spin-out companies, in the development of new pharmaceuticals, medical procedures or devices and so on. At the moment, we can achieve that only by licensing. In some situations it cannot be achieved, for example, where there is no obvious licensee or further development is necessary. In such cases, the spin-out company route is needed so that the new treatment can be brought in for the benefit of patients. A spin-out company will be formed by bringing in outside funding without further investment by the NHS or the Department of Health. The previous work done to develop innovation gives the NHS or the Department of Health body its shareholding.
Without going into detail, we must recognise that we need clear procedures for managing risk with spin-out companies. We intend that, in all proposals, approval of a business case by officials acting on behalf of the Secretary of State will be required. The proposal is very much in line with wider Government policies for the successful development and exploitation of intellectual property rights.