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Stephen Ezell

Stephen Ezell

Vice President, Global Innovation Policy, and Director, Center for Life Sciences Innovation

Information Technology and Innovation Foundation

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 202-449-1349

Twitter: @sjezell

Stephen Ezell is vice president for global innovation policy at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) and director of ITIF’s Center for Life Sciences Innovation. He also leads the Global Trade and Innovation Policy Alliance. His areas of expertise include science and technology policy, international competitiveness, trade, and manufacturing.

Ezell is the coauthor of Innovating in a Service-Driven Economy: Insights, Application, and Practice (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015) and Innovation Economics: The Race for Global Advantage (Yale, 2012).

Ezell came to ITIF from Peer Insight, an innovation research and consulting firm he cofounded in 2003 to study the practice of innovation in service industries. At Peer Insight, Ezell led the Global Service Innovation Consortium, published multiple research papers on service innovation, and researched national service innovation policies being implemented by governments worldwide.

Prior to forming Peer Insight, Ezell worked in the New Service Development group at the NASDAQ Stock Market, where he spearheaded the creation of the NASDAQ Market Intelligence Desk and the NASDAQ Corporate Services Network, services for NASDAQ-listed corporations. Previously, Ezell cofounded two successful innovation ventures, the high-tech services firm Brivo Systems and Lynx Capital, a boutique investment bank.

Ezell holds a B.S. from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, with an honors certificate from Georgetown’s Landegger International Business Diplomacy program.

Recent Publications

February 14, 2024

Assessing India’s Readiness to Assume a Greater Role in Global Semiconductor Value Chains

India has the potential to play a much more significant role in global semiconductor value chains, provided the government upholds its investment policies, maintains a conducive regulatory and business environment, and avoids measures that create unpredictability.

February 6, 2024

Comments to the NIST Regarding the Draft Interagency Guidance Framework for Considering the Exercise of March-In Rights

America’s innovation system is fragile, and its leadership in advanced technology industries is never guaranteed or assured. The United States has taken—only to sacrifice—its lead in a wide-range of advanced technology industries, often in part because of significant policy lapses. It’s no time for additional unforced errors.

February 1, 2024

The CHIPS Program Office Needs to Think Like Economic Developers, Not Bankers

Accelerating the construction of semiconductor facilities requires thinking in terms of “let’s get it done,” not “let’s cover every base and limit every liability.”

January 31, 2024

Comments to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Regarding the WHO Pandemic Preparedness Agreement

The United States should not endorse an IPR waiver in the WHO Pandemic Preparedness Agreement. It would not increase the number of vaccines or therapeutics, or the global supply that might be needed to address a future global pandemic.

January 29, 2024

Assessing the Dominican Republic’s Readiness to Play a Greater Role in Global Semiconductor and PCB Value Chains

The Dominican Republic is one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, offers perhaps the most attractive business environment in Latin America, and is a leading candidate for nearshored investments in advanced manufacturing activity—particularly for electronics such as printed circuit boards (PCBs) and the assembly, test, and packaging (ATP) of semiconductors.

December 11, 2023

Biden’s Assertion of Excessive Biopharma Industry Concentration Is a Flawed Rationale for a Flawed Policy

The administration is flat wrong that America’s biopharmaceutical industry is excessively concentrated. It’s also flat wrong that U.S. drug prices are rising out of control.

November 13, 2023

Comments to the European Commission Regarding the EU General Pharmaceuticals Legislation

Changes proposed in the EU General Pharmaceutical Legislation would double down on policies that hinder, not enable, EU life-sciences innovation potential, while forsaking other avenues that could more effectively enhance access without compromising innovation.

September 14, 2023

Latin American Subnational Innovation Competitiveness Index

For policymakers to bolster the global competitiveness of their nations and regions, they first must know where they stand. This report benchmarks the 182 regions of Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and the United States using 13 commonly available indicators of strength in the knowledge economy, in globalization, and in innovation capacity.

September 14, 2023

Transatlantic Subnational Innovation Competitiveness Index 2.0

For policymakers to bolster the global competitiveness of their nations and regions, they first must know where they stand. This report benchmarks the 121 regions of Austria, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Sweden, and the United States using 13 commonly available indicators of strength in the knowledge economy, globalization, and innovation capacity.

September 11, 2023

How Expanding the Information Technology Agreement to an “ITA-3” Would Bolster Nations’ Economic Growth

Completing a second expansion of the Information Technology Agreement (an “ITA-3”) could bring more than 400 unique ICT products under the ITA’s tariff-eliminating framework, which would add more than $750 billion to the global economy over 10 years.

September 5, 2023

How Skeptics Misconstrue the Link Between Drug Prices and Innovation

A recent article in the British Medical Journal contends “high drug prices” are neither necessary nor justified to sustain biopharmaceutical innovation. But it misrepresents and misinterprets the facts, highlighting how faulty the rationale is for drug price controls.

August 18, 2023

Comments to the National Institutes of Health on “Maximizing NIH’s Levers to Catalyze Technology Transfer”

The technology-transfer regime the United States has implemented over the past four decades, largely as enabled through the Bayh-Dole Act, has been tremendously effective in stimulating innovation, especially in the life sciences. While all such processes should be continuously streamlined or tweaked where improvement is possible, the current system does not need serious modification or reform.

More publications by Stephen Ezell

Recent Events and Presentations

March 5, 2024

Preserving U.S. Leadership in Biopharmaceutical Innovation

Watch now for an expert panel discussion surrounding the ITIF report examining why the United States lost its lead in other advanced technology industries, and how policymakers can avoid repeating the same mistakes in the biopharmaceutical sector.

February 22, 2024

Assessing India’s Readiness to Compete in Global Semiconductor Value Chains

Watch now for an expert panel discussion about a new ITIF report that was commissioned to inform the U.S. and Indian governments for their joint initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET).

January 30, 2024

Assessing the Dominican Republic’s Readiness to Compete in Global Semiconductor and PCB Value Chains

Watch now for an ITIF event releasing a report that will explore the Dominican Republic’s preparedness to compete in global semiconductor and PCB value chains.

September 14, 2023

Innovation and Competitiveness: GTIPA Summit, 2023

Join members of the Global Trade and Innovation Policy Alliance (GTIPA) for a series of expert panel discussions on technology and innovation policy. Topics will include the keys to subnational innovation competitiveness in Europe and South America, optimal ways to stimulate life sciences innovation, how digital technologies can drive decarbonization, and the possibilities for reimaging value chains in the global trading system.

August 22, 2023

Seizing the Transformative Opportunity of Multi-cancer Early Detection

Stephen Ezell gave a presentation on “Seizing the Transformative Opportunity of Multi-cancer Early Detection” at the 15th Annual Next Generation Dx Summit in Washington, DC on August 22, 2023.

August 21, 2023

Innovation and IP's Contribution to Global Social Challenges and Public Health

Stephen Ezell gave a presentation at the 43rd Congress of the Brazilian Intellectual Property Association (ABPI) on how Brazil can advance its competitiveness in innovation-based industries.

June 26, 2023

Policies to Stimulate Entrepreneurship and Scale-ups in the United States

Stephen Ezell presents on Policies to Stimulate Entrepreneurship and Scale-ups in the United States at the 14th Plenary Meeting of the European TTO Circle in Berlin, Germany.

April 4, 2023

Lessons From the Rise and Fall of Japan’s Life-Sciences Innovation Ecosystem

Tune in for an expert panel discussion examining where Japan faltered in this sector, what it must do to restore its life-sciences innovation leadership and competitiveness, why that would be in the best interests of both Japan and the United States—and what America must do to avoid following in Japan’s footsteps.

March 30, 2023

Sustaining US HPC Leadership in an Exascale Era

Stephen Ezell presents at the Coalition for Academic Scientific Computation (CASC) Spring Conference on Sustaining U.S. HPC Leadership in an Exascale Era.

March 24, 2023

Preserving a Virtuous Cycle: The Economics of Biopharmaceutical Innovation

Watch the release event of a new report that examines the dynamics that underpin the economics of biopharmaceutical innovation and how to maintain a supportive environment that keeps the United States in the lead of life-sciences innovation.

March 2, 2023

Policies to Stimulate Entrepreneurship and Scale-Ups in the United States

Stephen Ezell presents on policies nations can deploy to stimulate incubation and scale up of entrepreneurial start-up companies.

More Events & Presentations by Stephen Ezell

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