Blog

The latest thoughts from Medicines Law & Policy partners.

UN “Pact for the Future” intellectual property actions need revision to ensure innovation and...

UPDATE: From 22-23 September 2024, the Summit of the Future took place and adopted the Pact for the Future. The intellectual property paragraph of...

Dutch health insurance company Menzis takes AstraZeneca to court over patent evergreening

Today health insurance company Menzis announced  that it is taking the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to court over the pricing of Seroquel, a medicine...
Cherry blossom

The Pandemic Agreement is here

In December 2021, the member states of the World Health Organization decided “to draft and negotiate a WHO convention, agreement or other international instrument...

The elephant in the room at the WHO Executive Board

The World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus spoke harshly about the lack of Covid-19 vaccines in developing countries at the opening of...

Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation is taking AbbVie to court over excessive pricing of Humira –...

On 21 February, the Dutch Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation (PAF) took the bold step to take AbbVie to court, claiming the company’s pricing policy had...

The Waiver that Wasn’t: Is the pharma lobby responsible?

Systemic lobbying pressure from pharmaceutical companies – allegedly attached to threats to withdraw investments – may have been responsible for the watering down of...

Submission to the US International Trade Commission

On 17 June 2022, World Trade Organization (WTO) Members adopted a Ministerial Decision outlining flexibilities in the WTO’s Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property...

Will the European Court of Justice put a stop to the evergreening of Truvada...

Truvada, the fixed-dose combination of tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) and emtricitabine (FTC) is a critical medicine in both HIV treatment and prevention. It is...

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...

Fair Medicines Pricing requires addressing monopolies and increasing transparency in pharmaceutical markets

The 4th WHO Fair Pricing Forum took place from 6 - 8 February 2024. Ellen 't Hoen spoke at the opening plenary. Below are...