Wrapping up 2020 with some noteworthy medicines, law and policy events
Wrapping up the year 2020 can’t happen soon enough. This year, one way or the other, most people on the planet have been affected...
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 People vs. AbbVie
Today, 9 May 2025, is an important day in court for the Dutch Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation (PAF). In February 2023, PAF started a court...
“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...
To achieve fair pricing: Ensure cooperation and transparency, build enforcement capacity, and engage civil...
Greater cooperation, clarity and capacity can help create a supportive environment for the private sector to fairly price their products.
The first condition is cooperation...
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...
Covid shows the world it needs new rules to deal with pandemics
The World Health Assembly, the World Health Organization (WHO)'s annual decision-making meeting, begins next week and will run from 24 May - 1 June....
The new IP strategy of war-torn Ukraine should prioritise public health and national security
Russia’s full-scale assault on Ukraine continues for the third year. The Russian occupation forces have already killed tens of thousands of civilians, including children. They have...
Time for new pharmaceutical-innovation models
The pharmaceutical industry is one of the most profitable on earth, expected to be worth $1.4 trillion by the end of 2020. Last year,...
The European Commission’s proposal on a new EU-wide compulsory licensing regime
Guest author Olga Gurgula is a Senior Lecturer in Intellectual Property Law at Brunel Law School, Brunel University London
A recent international health emergency, the...