Guest column : The UN High-Level Panel on #accesstomedicines is a wolf in sheep’s clothing

In 2015, the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon convened a High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines. Its charge was to recommend solutions to the fallaciously described “policy incoherence between the justifiable rights of inventors, international human rights law, trade rules and public health in the context of health technologies.” Unfortunately, their starting point was misguided, …

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Guest column : Are “prizes” to reward drug R&D a viable alternative to patents?

Given the intense public debate over access to and pricing of patented medicines, academics, policymakers, lawyers, and others have begun to think creatively about what it is that actually incentivises innovation and encourages drug development. While doing so, it is important to identify the points in the R&D process where the failures occur. There are …

India’s patented diabetes drugs : proof of the pudding

For a while it was beginning to look as if you couldn't patent a drug in India without being opposed tooth and nail by local companies or non-profits (with good reason in a number of cases).  Some innovators complained of the Indian patent law being too pro-generics. Others said - and Apothecurry agrees - that parts of India's …