Dolutegravir Patent Licences Can Provide Access To All
This year the World Health Organization (WHO) added dolutegravir, an antiretroviral medicine for the treatment of HIV infection, to its Model List of Essential...
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...
FDA approval of injectable lenacapavir for Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) opens the road to ending...
On 18th June 2025, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of long-acting antiretroviral medicine lenacapavir (LEN-LA), for the prevention of...
Dutch Court Orders AstraZeneca to Pay Damages in Patent Evergreening Case
Today the Dutch court made a long-awaited ruling in the patent evergreening case of health insurance company Menzis versus AstraZeneca. It found that AstraZeneca...
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...
The € 7.4 billion for Covid-19 product and vaccine development needs a few strings...
On 4 May 2020, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hosted the Coronavirus Global Response conference, an on-line pledging event to accelerate the...
The Italian Exception – A personalised approach to accessing high-priced patented medicines
At the end of March 2017, the Italian Minister of Health Beatrice Lorenzin has authorised the importation of generic medicines. She did this with...
Updated TRIPS Flexibilities Database
In January 2023, a number of cystic-fibrosis patient organisations asked the governments of Brazil, India, South Africa and Ukraine to invoke compulsory licensing and...
MSF’s Access Campaign is an invaluable actor in global health; shutting it down is...
On 20 June, STAT News reported that Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is closing down their Access Campaign, effective as of 31 December 2024. It...
2018 Round-up of Noteworthy Medicines Law and Policy Events
We are reaching the end of 2018: Time for our end-of-the-year roundup of some significant developments in medicines law and policy.
January
The Chilean parliament started...