Dutch Minister of Health writes open letter to pharma, threatens to name and shame
"Dear Pharma," writes the Dutch Minister of Health, Bruno Bruins in an open letter in the daily newspaper the Volkskrant, "Last week two messages jumped...
Lessons for a pandemic preparedness treaty from previous successes and failures with treaty-based technology...
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1. Introduction
Scaling-up production of new vaccines to provide many billions of doses on a time-scale...
The Expanding Reach of the European Patent Office. Good for Health?
The European Patent Office (EPO) is tasked with the examination of patent applications and the granting of patents when these applications meet the patentability...
New WHO-UNITAID briefing paper: Improving Access to Covid-19 Treatments
A new briefing paper based on Medicines Law & Policy research outlines the legal instruments available for countries seeking to access key therapeutics to...
Humiragate: AbbVie’s desperate attempts to keep its monopoly
A new front has opened in the war against Abbvie's efforts to sustain and secure its Humira market monopoly. This time in The Netherlands...
European Commission Publishes Expert Panel’s Recommendations on High Drug Prices
This month the European Commission published Innovative Payment Models for High-Cost Innovative Medicines, a report of the Expert Panel on effective ways of investing...
Some Surprises in the European Commission’s New Intellectual Property Strategy
The European Commission's new intellectual property (IP) strategy is out and it holds a number of surprises for access to medicines. After restating the...
Socially Responsible Licensing of Medical Technologies
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND: On 31 October, the World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) held their...
WHO Members meet to finalise the Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing Instrument
In May 2025, the WHO member states adopted the Pandemic Agreement, but they left the work to establish an instrument for Pathogen Access and...
Thanks to the European Commission, Biogen can extend Tecfidera monopoly for at least two...
According to an investigation by Follow the Money, a Dutch investigative journalism outlet, the European Commission restored the market exclusivity of Tecfidera, a multiple...