ML&P Blog: Our insight into current issues

Medicines Law & Policy periodically will post timely analysis and insight into current events related to intellectual property and innovation policy as they impact on access to medicines. These posts are listed below. We also have a newsletter for those interested in being notified when new articles are posted.

Latest Blog Posts

The new EU compulsory licensing regime needs to allow the export of medicines

Guest author Olga Gurgula is a Senior Lecturer in Intellectual Property Law at Brunel Law School, Brunel University London. A war-weary Ukraine critically depends on the support of...

WHO is an essential forum for debates on intellectual property and public health

Recently, Health Policy Watch reported that some European countries at the World Health Organization (WHO) Pandemic Agreement negotiations maintain that intellectual property negotiations belong...

ML&P’s Statement at the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body on a pandemic accord

This statement was delivered by Kaitlin Mara at the World Health Organization's seventh meeting and drafting group of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) to...

The Urgency of Compulsory Licensing Provision for Transfer of Technology in the Pandemic Treaty: A Case Study on the WHO mRNA Hub

Guest blog by Ronald Eberhard The Intergovernmental Negotiating Body, established by the World Health Assembly, aims to draft a global pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response...

New reports offer evidence for extending the WTO Decision on TRIPS to Covid-19 therapeutics and diagnostics. Why delay further?

In February 2024, the 13th World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference will take place. WTO Members are expected to decide whether to extend the...

Sharing know-how/trade secrets during a pandemic: We must be planning for it now

Medicines Law & Policy has recently proposed a provision for inclusion in the draft WHO  pandemic instrument currently being discussed in Geneva (here and...

Current drafts of the WHO Pandemic Accord lack a provision for access to knowhow/trade secrets. We drafted one.

Negotiations are currently taking place at the World Health Organization (WHO) to conclude a new pandemic agreement by May 2024. The objective of the...

The European Commission’s proposal on a new EU-wide compulsory licensing regime

Guest author Olga Gurgula is a Senior Lecturer in Intellectual Property Law at Brunel Law School, Brunel University London A recent international health emergency, the...

The European Commission’s compulsory licensing proposals are sensible but do not go far enough

An earlier version of this comment was published in Barron's on 21 July 2023. A Spanish translation of it is also available from El...

Thanks to the European Commission, Biogen can extend Tecfidera monopoly for at least two more years.

According to an investigation by Follow the Money, a Dutch investigative journalism outlet, the European Commission restored the market exclusivity of Tecfidera, a multiple...