Sharing know-how/trade secrets during a pandemic: We must be planning for it now
Medicines Law & Policy has recently proposed a provision for inclusion in the draft WHO pandemic instrument currently being discussed in Geneva (here and...
The EU proposed Covid waivers of certain TRIPS rules are mostly meaningless
Since October 2020, discussions have been ongoing at the World Trade Organization’s Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Council about a waiver of...
Pharmaceutical patents and data exclusivity in an age of AI-driven drug discovery and development
This is an excerpt from a longer report on AI, medicines development and the patent system.
Download the full report here (or by clicking...
What is the ‘know-how gap’ problem and how might it impact scaling up production...
This entire article is also available as a PDF by clicking here.
1. Introduction.
How relevant are concerns about intellectual property rights causing problems for...
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...
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...
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...
European Parliament’s amendments make the Regulation for EU-wide compulsory licensing difficult to use and...
European Parliament legislative resolution of 13 March 2024, on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on compulsory...
EU Review of Pharmaceutical Incentives: Recommendations for Change
In 2016, the European Council decided it was time for a review of the incentives that the EU provides to companies that develop new...
How the ‘Oxford’ Covid-19 vaccine became the ‘AstraZeneca’ Covid-19 vaccine
The ‘Oxford / AstraZeneca’ vaccine is one of the world’s leading hopes in the race to end the Covid-19 pandemic. Its history is not...