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“The diseases were in the South and the drugs were in the North”: Ellen...

Ellen 't Hoen discusses the HIV epidemic in the 90's, which hit sub-Saharan Africa particularly hard, and was exacerbated by the lack of availability...

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...

Drug Price Transparency Calls Move from South Africa to World Health Assembly

by Katrina Perehudoff and Jennifer Sellin Over 30 states and 40 business and civil society groups debated strategies for affordable and sustainable medicines prices at...
Generic lumacaftor/ivacaftor

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...

Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response: Uneven access to vaccination is pre-eminent problem

The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response (IPPPR) today released its findings in a report titled “Covid-19: Make it the last pandemic,” laying...

Covid-19 and the comeback of compulsory licensing

The Covid-19 outbreak raises many questions, including some we can answer using experiences gained in previous disease outbreaks. Here is one: how to deal...

BMJ Commentary: Overriding drug and medical technology patents for pandemic recovery: a legitimate move...

Interest in the use of compulsory licensing is making a comeback in high-income countries in response to concerns about access to Covid-19 vaccines and...

Gilead’s sofosbuvir patent in India – options for global access to new hepatitis C...

Earlier this month the US pharmaceutical company Gilead obtained a patent in India for sofosbuvir, part of a treatment of hepatitis C that became...

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...

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....