By Ryan Abbott I wrote earlier this month about the case between Novartis and the Union of India, in which the Supreme Court of India affirmed denying a patent for Novartis’ anti-cancer drug Glivec. Adriana Benedict added an insightful post about the case last week. In my last post, I talked about the theory behind the decision and…
By Adriana Benedict Last week, Ryan Abbot blogged here about the Novartis case decided last Monday by the Supreme Court of India. Since then, there have been a broad range of reactions to the case, but many of them appear to have left a lurking elephant in the room. I’d like to attempt to provide…
By Scott Burris Stephanie Morain and Michelle Mello’s recent paper in the March issue of Health Affairs is an extremely important contribution. It reports on a survey of American adults investigating their support for a range of current health interventions, and finds – contrary to the myth being propagated in politics and the media –…
By Ryan Abbott An important case was decided yesterday that may have a significant impact on access to medicines for patients in developing countries. India’s high court rejected an appeal by the pharmaceutical company Novartis to grant a patent for its cancer drug Glivec. The case involved a challenge to Section 3(d) of the Indian…
By Yoni Schenker I am writing my student fellowship paper under the broad topic of health worker “brain drain,” so I have been keeping an eye out for related news stories. Two stories that caught my eye in the past few weeks were about the health worker migration from civil war torn Syria and economic-crisis…
By The Petrie-Flom Center A reminder that the Harvard University Program in Ethics and Health annual conference, Universal Health Coverage in Low-Income Countries: Ethical Issues, will be held in Boston on April 18-19, 2013. AGENDA https://peh.harvard.edu/events/2013/universal_coverage/agenda.html REGISTRATION No fee. Space limited. Registration required. Please register on our registration website.
By Adriana Benedict Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO), World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and World Trade Organization (WTO) released a trilateral study on Promoting Access to Medical Technologies and Innovation: Intersections between public health, intellectual property and trade. According to the official summary of the book, the publication is aimed at policy makers…
By Holly Fernandez Lynch Last week, the Indian government issued revised rules governing “compensation in case of injury or death during clinical trial.” You’ve really got to read the whole thing, but some of the provisions are pretty remarkable: “In the case of an injury occurring to the clinical trial subject, he or she shall…
By Adriana Benedict In December, I wrote a blog post noting that access to biomedical research is critical not only for informed patient care, but also for the sustainable development of pharmaceutical R&D responsive to local needs, especially in developing countries. In recent years, open access issues have taken on an increasingly important role in…
