Priti Krishtel, a critic of medical patents, is a MacArthur Fellow

October 14, 2022

“Priti Krishtel is a health justice lawyer exposing the inequities in the patent system to increase access to affordable, life-saving medications on a global scale,” the MacArthur foundation said in statement this week, while naming her as one of 25 fellows for 2022. “By distilling the technical aspects of the patent system to show its sometimes devastating impact on people’s lives,” Krishtel is increasing the understanding of how intellectual property policy, which serves “the commercial interests in our medicines patent policy…can impact personal, public, and global health care,” the foundation added.

 “The 2022 class of MacArthur Fellows @macfound was announced today and I’m on the list! What a powerful validation of the change the movement is about to make. Let’s go!!!,” Krishtel tweeted. She has roughly 15,000 followers on Twitter and follows 2,400.

The fellowship is a "no strings attached" investment “in a person's originality, insight, and potential,” not projects, mainly in the United States. The fellows receive a total of $800,000, paid out each quarter over five years. Recipients are not required or expected to create specific products or reports and they are not evaluated during the term of the fellowship.  

Nominations for the fellowship are made by a constantly changing pool of invited external nominators chosen from a broad range of fields and areas of interest. Nominations are evaluated by an independent Selection Committee composed of about a dozen leaders in the arts, sciences, humanities professions, and for-profit and nonprofit communities, with input from other experts collected by the program staff.

Typically 20 to 30 Fellows are selected each year; since 1981, 1061 people have been named MacArthur Fellows. Nominators, evaluators, and selectors all serve anonymously, and their correspondence is kept confidential to try and get their honest evaluations. 

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Krishtel has argued that, particularly during public health emergencies and for taxpayer-funded research, commercial and public interest concerns can be balanced. “COVID taught us that when the biggest drug companies have monopolies on their products, they will always sell to the highest bidder [i.e., countries who are willing to pay the most for vaccine doses].” she told WLRN..

In 2006, while based in Bangalore, India, Krishtel co-founded the Initiative for Medicines, Access, and Knowledge (I-MAK) with a vision of shaping a patent system that benefits all people regardless of geography and economic status. The other co-founder is Tahir Amin, who practiced intellectual property law for more than 25 years, including in Britain, at law firms and as a counsel to major corporations, including U.S. jeans maker Levi Strauss. He earned his law degree from the University of Westminster, London, 1993.

I-Mak, based in Oakland, California, draws attention to weaknesses within the patent system while identifying needed reforms to make it more responsive to the public good. Patents are intended to incentivize innovation by ensuring that only the patent holder can sell and profit from the product for a fixed time. However, many pharmaceutical companies seek to extend their monopolies by filing multiple patents on small changes - such as changes in dosage - to existing drugs over several years. This stifles competition, delays generic production, and keeps medicines out of the hands of people who need them the most.

I-MAK has successfully contested patents worldwide, saving governments billions of dollars in public health spending and giving millions of people access to life-saving treatments. Its team publishes a series of reports, entitled Overpatented, Overpriced, that exposes the scale of pharmaceutical companies’ exploitation of the U.S. patent system. Its website also offers tools for investigating and learning about the history of drug patents.

I-MAK also brings together patient groups, policymakers, patent lawyers and judges and others to deepen the understanding of the impact of the patent system across different communities.

Krishtel and I-MAK have proposed several reforms to U.S. patent policy, including ensuring only meaningful inventions are rewarded with a patent, increasing oversight from other government branches, and increasing public participation in the patent process. For example, it seeks individuals from patient groups be added to the Public Advisory Committee of the U.S. Patent Office, which has historically been comprised of lawyers and representatives from companies who financially benefit from the current system.

In 2003, Krishtel moved to Bangalore and started her legal aid career with the Indian Non-Government Organization Lawyers Collective. She worked to increase access to antiretroviral treatments at the height of the global AIDS epidemic. “I saw families who placed their children in orphanages before their parents died because HIV medications weren't reaching India at that time,” she told WLRN.

Priti Krishtel received a BA, 1999, from the University of California at Berkeley and a JD, 2002, from New York University School of Law. She worked with the Indian NGO Lawyers Collective, 2003–2006 before co-founding I-MAK, where she is currently co-executive director. She has published in several scientific journals and media platforms, including Science, The British Medical Journal, and The New York Times.

Her father was a scientist at a U.S. pharmaceutical company who formulated drugs, Krishtel told a TED gathering; the video has gotten more than 88,000 views on YouTube. He was her biggest influence, instilling in her and her sister - who is a doctor - a love for science and for finding cures.

In addition to the fellowships, the Chicago-based MacArthur Foundation gives annual grants to organizations and individuals with a focus on advancing global climate solutions, decreasing nuclear risk, promoting local justice reform in the U.S., and reducing corruption in Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria. In 2021, it paid out $274 million in grants and impact investments to organizations and individuals in the United States and around the world. Since its founding in 1979, the MacArthur Foundation has awarded nearly $8 billion to around 10,000 organizations and individuals in 117 countries and all 50 U.S. states.

The foundation, funded with $1 billion by John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur, made its first grants in 1978; “I made the money; you guys will have to figure out what to do with it,” John MacArthur told the foundation’s board. One of seven children born in an impoverished coal producing region of Pennsylvania, his business interests included the Bankers Life and Casualty insurance company and real estate holdings in Florida, New York City, and Chicago. At year-end 2021, the foundation had $9.4 billion in assets.

“We live in a hierarchy of health,” Krishtel has said, according to the MacArthur Foundation. “Some people get medicine first, and some don’t get it at all. Our ability to heal should not depend on our ability to pay or where we live…I believe in a future where people know they can keep their loved ones healthy…ensuring that innovation exists to serve people, to save lives.”

 Story updated 10.18.2022

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