Continuing to ignore the problem of the know-how gap won’t make it go away.
The Covid-19 pandemic was a wake-up call for a variety of issues in access to medicines, one of which was finding a solution to...
Advanced Purchase Agreements for Covid-19 Vaccines: Do they ensure Global Public Good?
Advanced Purchase Agreements (APAs) were part of a strategy to provide upfront financing for Covid-19 vaccines and to accelerate their development and availability. Since...
WTO Covid-19 TRIPS Decision: Some observations
This morning, 17 June at 5 AM the 12th World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference (MC12) approved a package of decisions and declarations. The...
The European Commission says Covid-19 vaccines should be global public goods, but do their...
The European Commission has entered into advance purchase agreements (APAs) for Covid-19 vaccines with six pharmaceutical companies and is concluding negotiations with two companies....
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...
Proposed TRIPS waiver a hollow diplomatic compromise with little practical impact
In October of 2020, 9 months into the pandemic, fearing conflicts over intellectual property (IP) related to medical measures to fight the pandemic, India...
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...
Submission to the US International Trade Commission
On 17 June 2022, World Trade Organization (WTO) Members adopted a Ministerial Decision outlining flexibilities in the WTO’s Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property...
The last mile: A few suggestions for the WHO Pandemic Agreement’s last two weeks...
This technical briefing note is also available as a PDF here.
On 16 April, the Bureau of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) to draft and...
The European Parliament has now explicitly acknowledged the know-how problem too: time to include...
This technical briefing note is also available as a PDF here.
We have been calling attention to the problem of sharing know-how necessary for the...