Covid-19 intellectual property pool gaining support
While drug and vaccine developers are working on tools to prevent and treat Covid- 19, here is a question the rest of us should...
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...
The Power of TRIPS Flexibilities in Medicines Procurement
The government of Malaysia has began to roll out treatment of people infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV). Treatment will be a combination 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...
Medicines Law & Policy’s director, Ellen ’t Hoen, receives high Netherlands honour for her...
Ellen 't Hoen has been appointed Officer of the Order of Oranje-Nassau, a royal award which recognises those who merit particular appreciation from society...
Medicines price transparency: Ground still left to cover
Parts of this blog were previously published in the Lancet Regional Health Europe
Secret medicines prices are hotly debated as European health systems struggle to...
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...
TRIPS Council to discuss IP and the public interest in the context of Covid-19
The search for new treatments and vaccines needed to respond to the Covid-19 outbreak has laid bare some key issues around intellectual property (IP)...
Access to medicines amendment of the WTO TRIPS Agreement. Hype or hope?
On 30 January 2017 the World Trade Organization (WTO) announced the first ever amendment to the TRIPS Agreement under the headline WTO members welcome...
Transfer of technology and know-how for the production of pandemic-related health products in the...
A version of this brief was published on 13 June '25 by the Graduate Institute as part of their 'Governing Pandemic Snapshot' series: https://www.governingpandemics.org/gp-snapshot
During...