Dr. Padmashree Gehl Sampath


Professorial fellow

Research group(s):
4. Governance and institutions

Padmashree is the Senior Advisor, Global Access in Action Program, Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University. She has over two decades of experience in policy forecasting and analysis, policy design and implementation of relevance to global and national governance in various sectors of the economy. As a widely renowned thought leader in these areas, she influences policy and strategic decisions by assessing and predicting the emergence of new market opportunities, current and future competition patterns, and identifying strategic areas of intervention to promote change. She has held several positions in academia and international agencies, including a tenured position at the Open University, United Kingdom, an adjunct professorship at the University of Aalborg, Denmark, and most recently, she served as Head-Policy of the International Renewable Energy Agency.

At Berkman Klein Center, Harvard University, her work particularly focuses on the ways in which the digital technologies can be leveraged through new business models in the public and private sectors. Topics of work include leveraging AI for growth and prosperity, government-as-a-platform in the global South, digital development strategies, privacy and control for the public good, and new business and governance models for plural, participatory futures in the digital economy. She also continues to work on how the global pharma and life sciences sector can better address global health challenges.

In the past, she has advised the national governments of Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, USA, UK, apart from a range of African, Asian, and Latin American governments, international policy organizations such as World Intellectual Property Organization, World Health Organization and various other United Nations organizations, regional agencies and regional banks, and other associations which influence business and government policies. She continues to influence policy and new models of partnerships with industry leaders and private companies, market makers, regulators from national governments globally and international agencies. She has authored over sixty publications on these topics, including five widely acclaimed books, white papers and position papers that have been implemented widely. She is on the editorial board of the Journal of Competition and Change.




Selected publications by Padmashree Gehl Sampath


Articles (journal, professional, popular)
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree & Bertha Vallejo, 2018, Trade, Global Value and Upgrading: What, When and How?, The European Journal of Development Research, DOI: 10.1057/s41287-018-0148-1, More information
Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, Banji & Padmashree Gehl Sampath, 2007, Learning Through Inter-organizational Interactions: Public Research Institutes in the Nigerian (Bio)pharmaceutical System of Innovation, European Journal of Development Research
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree, 2006, India’s Product Patent Regime: Less or More of “Pills for the Poor?, Journal of World Intellectual Property, 9(6): 694-726
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree, 2005, Regulating Bioprospecting: Institutions for Drug Research, Access and Benefit-Sharing, Policy Brief, 1
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree, 2004, Some Interrelationships Between the TRIPS Agreement and the Convention on Biological Diversity, UNU-INTECH Technology Policy Brief, 3(2)
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree, 2004, Adoption of Agricultural Biotechnology: Issues for Biosafety Governance in Asian Countries, Journal of Environment, Sustainability and Development, Special issue
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree, 2004, Intellectual Property Rights on Traditional Medicinal Knowledge: A Process-Oriented Perspective, Journal of World Intellectual Property, 7(5): 711-738


Book chapters
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree, 2005, Focusing on Agricultural Biotechnology: Issues for Developing Countries, in: Mendelez Ortiz, R. (ed), Trading in Genes, Earthscan Publications
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree, 2004, Gender and the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights: Some Issues, in: Gender and Trade: Opportunities and Challenges, , UNCTAD
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree, 2004, Benefiting from Agricultural Biotechnology: Challenges for Developing Countries, in: Mendelez Ortiz, R. (ed), Trading in Genes, Earthscan Publications
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree, 2004, Exploring the Relationship Between the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights and Gender, in: Opportunities and Challenges for Developing Countries, United Nations, New York and Geneva


Books (monograph or edited volume)
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree, 2005, Regulating Bioprospecting: Institutions for Drug Research, Access and Benefit-Sharing, UNU Press, Tokyo, More information


UNU-MERIT Working Papers
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree & Bertha Vallejo, 2018, Global Value Chains and Upgrading: What, When and How?, UNU-MERIT Working Paper 2018-016
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree, 2018, Regulating the digital economy: Are we moving towards a 'win-win' or a 'lose-lose'?, UNU-MERIT Working Paper 2018-005
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree, 2007, Innovation and Competitive Capacity in Bangladesh’s Pharmaceutical Sector , UNU-MERIT Working Paper 2007-031
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree, 2006, Indian Pharma Within Global Reach?, Published in Jo Chataway, Dinar Kale and David Wield (editors), ‘The Indian Pharmaceutical Industry before and after TRIPS’. Special Issue of the Journal of Technology Analysis and Strategic Management, September 2007, UNU-MERIT Working Paper 2006-031
Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, Banji & Padmashree Gehl Sampath, 2006, Rough Road to Market: Institutional Barriers to Innovations in Africa, UNU-MERIT Working Paper 2006-026
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree, 2006, India's product patent protection regime: Less or more of "pills for the poor"?, UNU-MERIT Working Paper 2006-019
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree, 2006, Breaking the Fence: Patent Rights and Biomedical Innovation in 'Technology Followers', UNU-MERIT Working Paper 2006-008


External working papers
Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, Banji & Padmashree Gehl Sampath, 2005, Learning Through Inter-organizational Interactions: Public Research Institutes in the Nigerian (Bio)pharmaceutical System of Innovation, UNU-INTECH Discussion Paper 2005-2
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree, 2004, Adoption of Agricultural Biotechnology: Issues for Biosafety Governance in Asian Countries, UNU-INTECH Discussion Paper 2004-13
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree, 2004, Agricultural Biotechnology: Issues for Biosafety Governance in Asian Countries, UNU-INTECH Discussion Paper 2004-13
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree, 2003, Defining an Intellectual Property Right on Traditional Medicinal Knowledge: A Process-Oriented Perspective, UNU-INTECH Discussion Paper 2003-4
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree, 2003, Designing National Regimes that Promote Public Health Objectives, UNU-INTECH Discussion Paper 2003-8


Research reports
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree, 2007, Intellectual Property and Innovation in Least Developed Countries: Pharmaceuticals, Agro-Processing and Textiles and RMG in Bangladesh, A Study for UNCTAD-ALDC Division
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree, 2005, Economic Aspects of Access to Medicines After 2005: Product Patent Protection and Emerging Firm Strategies in the Indian Industry, A Study for the World Health Organization Commission on Intellectual Property, Innovation and Health (CIPIH)
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree, Banji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka & Lynn K. Mytelka, 2004, Study on the Natural Products Drug Research in Nigeria: The Sectoral System of Biotechnology Innovation, UNU-INTECH-NABDA Study for the IDRC, November 2004.


Conference contributions
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree, 2006, Health Innovation Systems and IPR Issues for Africa, NEPAD-ATPS African Conference and Workshop on Science and Technology and Health Innovation Systems in Africa, 28 November-4 December 2006, Mombasa, Kenya
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree, 2006, ABS Regulations to Promote Optimal R&D, Panelist, 'ABS Regulations to Promote Optimal R&D', in ABS Regulations and their Impact on Biodiversity Related (Basic) Research Activities: A DFG Side Event, Fourth Meeting of the Ad-Hoc Open-Ended Working Group on Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS WG4), 3
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree, 2005, WHO-Commission on Intellectual Property, Innovation and Health Peer Review Workshop, Speaker, 30-31 May 2005
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree, 2005, Promoting Health Innovation Through Intellectual Property Rights; Comparing India and Africa, Third Globelics Conference, Johannesberg, South Africa, 29 October – 3 November 2005
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree, 2005, Breaking the Fence: Can Patent Rights Deter Biomedical Innovation in ‘Technology Followers’, speaker, IKD Workshop on “Bridging the gulf between policies for innovation, productivity and industrial growth and policies to reduce poverty”, Institute of Common Wealth Studies, London, 18-20 November 2005
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree, 2004, WUR Seminar on Bioprospecting, Intellectual Property Rights and Biodiversity: From Global to a Local Level, speaker, WUR Wageningen, 27 October 2004
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree, 2004, Creating and Promoting Domestic Drug Manufacturing Capabilities: Legal and Economic Feasibility Assessment, Panelist, UNCTAD-ICTSD Bellagio Dialogue on Intellectual Property Rights and Sustainable Development, Bellagio, 12-16 October 2004
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree, 2004, Learning through Inter-organizational Interactions: The Case of Public Research Institutes in Nigerian Biotechnology, speaker, Second GLOBELICS Conference, Beijing, China, 17-20 October 2004
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree, 2003, Flexible National Regimes to Promote (Bio) pharmaceutical Research, International Workshop on Biopharmaceutical Innovation Systems, UNU-INTECH, Maastricht, 26-28 February 2003.
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree, 2003, Effective Benefit-Sharing: Instrumental Factors, speaker and panelist, Conference on 'Medicinal Plants: Access, Use and Benefit-Sharing in the Light of the CBD', Olso, Norway 4-6 April 2003.
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree, 2003, Positive Protection of Traditional Knowledge Through Sui Generis Legislation, organizer, session at the Global Biodiversity Forum (GBF) Workshop on the Interrelationships between the TRIPs agreement and the Biodiversity Convention held in Cancun, Mexico, 5-7 September 2003
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree, 2003, second consultation meeting of ICTSD’s project on Technology, Development Strategies and International Trade Rules (TEDIT), Participant, 24-25 November 2003
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree, 2003, Research tool patenting and licensing and biomedical innovation, Discussant, for Walsh-Arora, at the Second EPIP Conference on Copyright and database protection, patents and research tools, and other challenges to the intellectual property system, Maastricht, 24 November 2003
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree, 2003, Public-Private Sources and Partnerships in the Bioindustry, Paper presented at the 'European Biotechnology Meeting' held in preparation for the Global Biotechnology Forum, 09-12 December 2003
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree, 2003, Biotechnology and its Implications for African Food Security, Paper presented at the ATPS Science, Technology and Food Security Conference, Lesotho, 10-17 November 2003
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree, 2003, Regulation of Biosafety: Issues for Asia, Paper presented at the INREF-AGITS Working Conference, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand, 10-12 October 2003
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree, 2002, Property Rights and Use and Conservation of Genetic Resources, ICTSD-ECOLOGIC Expert Workshop on Trade, Intellectual Property and Sustainable Development, Geneva, Switzerland, 14-15 October 2002
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree, 2000, UNCTAD Expert Meeting on National Systems and Experiences for Protection of Traditional Knowledge, Innovations and Practices , participant, Geneva, 30 October - 02 November 2000


Briefs
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree, 2005, Regulating Bioprospecting: Institutions for Drug Research, Access and Benefit-Sharing, UNU Policy Brief No. 1, More information
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree, 2004, Some Interrelationships Between the TRIPS Agreement and the Convention on Biological Diversity, Technology Policy Brief, Volume 3, Issue 2, More information


Other (editorship, media appearance, keynote, etc.)
Gehl Sampath, Padmashree & Tarasofsky, 2002, The Inter-relationship Between Intellectual Property Rights and Conservation of Genetic Resources, a European Commission Submission to the Secretariat of the CBD, More information


UNU-MERIT