Compulsory licensing in research and healthcare

27.23 There are various reasons why a person or organisation might seek a compulsory licence to use a patented genetic invention in research or healthcare provision. For example:

• a researcher or research organisation might need access to an upstream genetic invention to develop a downstream product, such as a pharmaceutical drug;

• a researcher or research organisation that has developed an improvement on a patented research tool might require a licence over the primary tool in order to exploit the patented improvement;

• a pharmaceutical company, a private laboratory, or other private organisation might wish to provide a patented medical genetic test, or other healthcare service to the Australian community where demand is not being met; or

• a public sector health authority might wish to provide a patented medical genetic test or other healthcare service where demand is not being met; or where the patent holder has not licensed the patent widely, and this is having an injurious effect on the provision of services, the development of skills and the conduct of further research within Australia.^[33]