Faced with unreasonable medicines prices, the Netherlands introduces pharmacy exemption in patent law.
On 1 February 2019, article 53(3), second sentence of the Dutch Patent Act 1995 came into force introducing a patent exemption for the preparation...
Wrapping up 2023 with some noteworthy medicines, law and policy developments
Welcome to our 2023 end-of-the-year blog, our annual and highly-biased run-through of notable access to medicines events of the year that is about to...
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...
Cystic Fibrosis Buyers Club Shows the UK Government The Way
The move by a group of parents of children with cystic fibrosis (CF) to set up a buyers club to gain access to treatments...
The European Commission’s proposal for an EU wide compulsory licensing mechanism
In 2006 the European Generics Association was seeking clarification from the European Commission on whether generic versions of oseltamivir (Tamiflu) could be supplied to...
ML&P’s Comments to the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) on the Zero Draft of the...
These remarks were delivered on the occasion of the fourth meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body to draft and negotiate a WHO convention, agreement...
Vaccine knowledge needs to be a global public good: Remarks to the World Trade...
Ellen ‘t Hoen, Medicines Law & Policy, at the World Trade Organization-World Health Organization High-Level Dialogue on Expanding COVID-19 Vaccine Manufacturing to Promote Equitable...
Never say never – Why the High Income Countries that opted-out from the Art....
To limit the ability of patent owners to charge excessive prices for patented medicines, countries can grant compulsory licences which permit others to produce...
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)...
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...