Briefs & Briefing Documents

In addition to our tools and blog, ML&P occasionally delves into complex topics, posting brief explanations to make their legal implications more clear and understandable. We also undertake longer research projects, to more thoroughly explore issues and make policy recommendations. These are posted below.

Briefing Documents

How the ‘Oxford’ Covid-19 vaccine became the ‘AstraZeneca’ Covid-19 vaccine

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 as clear, though, as it may first seem. Medicines Law & Policy has written a technical briefing note that contextualises the respective roles of Oxford University, the Jenner Institute, AstraZeneca and these other actors, and provides comments as well as raises some important questions about what might yet be done better and what lessons can be learned for the future. Click here to read it.

An ML&P series of briefing documents that aims to contribute to the discussion on high medicines prices in Europe, in particular those that result from market exclusivity.

EU Review of Pharmaceutical Incentives:
Suggestions for Change

In June 2019, Medicines Law & Policy published a series of briefing documents that aim to contribute to the discussion on high medicines prices, in particular those that result from market exclusivity. The publication makes recommendations for policy and legislative change in the areas of Supplementary Protection Certificate, Data Exclusivity, and Orphan Medicinal Product regulations. The documents can be downloaded in their entirety, or by section, using the links below. A presentation on the documents made at a 3 June event co-hosted by the European Public Health Alliance is available here.

Briefs

How not to solve a crisis: The European Commission’s Plan for Transferable Data Exclusivity...

Drug-resistant infections, sometimes called “superbugs,” killed an estimated 1.27 million people in 2019, a number set to rise to 50 million by 2050. It is a global health crisis that has been quietly in the...

ML&P’s Comments to the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) on the Zero Draft of the...

These remarks were delivered on the occasion of the fourth meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body to draft and negotiate a WHO convention, agreement or other international instrument on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response,...

Lessons for a pandemic preparedness treaty from previous successes and failures with treaty-based technology...

This post can also be downloaded as a PDF here. 1.      Introduction Scaling-up production of new vaccines to provide many billions of doses on a time-scale of one or two years has never been undertaken before....

The EU proposed Covid waivers of certain TRIPS rules are mostly meaningless

By Ellen 't Hoen and Pascale Boulet 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 certain obligations under the...

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 the beginning of the pandemic, governments have spent at least...