Blog

The latest thoughts from Medicines Law & Policy partners.

It is not too late to solve the know-how problem in the WHO Pandemic...

Introduction One of the most important Intellectual Property (IP) problems which the Pandemic Accord negotiators need to solve is now in danger of being completely...

Ensuring that intellectual property rights aren’t a barrier to scaling-up: the remarkable example of...

This week various international bodies are tackling different challenges in meeting the urgent problem of scaling-up manufacture of and access to vaccines for Covid-19....

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...
Fireworks

Wrapping up 2022 with some noteworthy medicines, law and policy events

Welcome to our annual, highly biased, overview of noteworthy events in the field of medicines law and policy. Also in 2022, Covid-19 remained a central...

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...
Cherry blossom

The Pandemic Agreement is here

In December 2021, the member states of the World Health Organization decided “to draft and negotiate a WHO convention, agreement or other international instrument...

Are gene-editing therapies patentable? A WIPO side event investigates.

On 6 December, Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) organised an interesting panel on the patentability of new gene- and cell-based medical therapies, as a side...

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...

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...

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...