Kristina M.L. Acri, née Lybecker
– Chair of the Department of Economics and Business, Colorado College
Kristina M.L. Acri, née Lybecker, Senior Fellow at the Fraser Institute, is an Associate Professor of Economics and Chair of the Department of Economics and Business at Colorado College in Colorado Springs. Her research focuses largely on issues related to intellectual property (IP) rights protection with a particular focus on pharmaceutical-related IP.
Prof. Lybecker's recent publications include an evaluation of Canada's IP protection for pharmaceutical products based on international best practices, as well as examinations of alternatives to the existing patent system and the balance between pharmaceutical patent protection and access to essential medicines. She has testified in more than a dozen U.S. states on the economics of pharmaceutical counterfeiting and at the recent Trans-Pacific Partnership trade negotiations on the economics of access to medicine. Prof. Lybecker has also worked with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the OECD, and the World Bank on issues of innovation and international trade.
She earned a B.A. from Macalester College and received her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley.