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...

The new EU compulsory licensing regime needs to allow the export of medicines

Guest author Olga Gurgula is a Senior Lecturer in Intellectual Property Law at Brunel Law School, Brunel University London. A war-weary Ukraine critically depends on the support of...

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...

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...

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...

Medicines Law & Policy responds to US Health and Human Services Department request for...

On 12 December 2023 the US Health and Human Services Department (HHS) posted a notice and request for comments on “the implications of access...

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...

“This week, the medicines were not there”: What is at stake in the pandemic...

Earlier this week I listened to a testimony from a community worker at a maternity ward where HIV-positive women gave birth. 17 babies were...

How patents, data exclusivity and SPCs interact to extend market exclusivity of medicines: the...

Patents usually confer 20-year exclusive rights on inventions. Data exclusivity laws confer, depending on the country, 5 to 10 years’ exclusive rights over safety...

UN High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines calls for stronger public leadership in innovation...

The UN High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines published its report on 14 September. The Panel was established on 19 November 2015 by UN...