The Claim Game

My name is Umeet. I'm a fourth year at UC Berkeley double majoring in Molecular and Cell Biology and Legal Studies. Here's a little bit about myself:

I like stem cells - I'm the President of UC Berkeley's Student Society for Stem Cell Research and the Academic Director of the Stem Cell Decal on campus. I'm pretty much convinced that stem cell biology is taking us into a new era of medicine.

I spend more time in lab than I'd like to admit - I am a research assistant at Harland Lab, studying genetic mechanisms involved in the development of ciliated epithelia.

I advocate for accessible medicines and therapies - I really, really care about making medicines and therapies economically accessible on a global scale.

I often find myself questioning the rhetoric behind the word "cure," especially when used by hopeful biotech/pharma CEOs. When we think of "cures" we're supposed to feel relieved. But what if these so called "cures" are inherently inaccessible to large demographics of individuals? If a biotech company innovated a "cure" to HIV tomorrow, people would still have HIV for years to come if the "cure" came at a price.

And don't get me wrong - this price is definitely justified to a certain extent. It takes a lot of time, money, and ambition to pursue novel medicines and therapies, especially when facing the risk of failure and enduring expensive clinical trials. But there has to be a balance between incentivizing such innovation, and making these life saving innovations economically accessible. One suggestion is to use specific patenting and licensing strategies that attempt to both incentivize innovation while making the resulting medicines and therapies accessible.

As a board member of UC Berkeley's Universities Allied for Essential Medicines, I am involved in exploring such strategies through a research project that assesses the current state of UC Berkeley's socially responsible licensing policies.

I obsess over innovation in biotech - I am writing a senior thesis on an empirical analysis of hematopoietic stem cell patents and follow-on innovation.

My research and professional interests boil down to health policy, biotech patents, and innovation. I'm taking this class with the hope that I will learn more about patents from the perspective of applicants, the challenges scientists and engineers face when filing patents, and the current landscape of tech patents.

In my free time you can find me on Yelp (Elite '16 woohoo), attempting amateur photography, or binge watching John Oliver.