Category Access to Medicine

Intellectual Property and Trade Measures to Address the Covid-19 Crisis

[South Centre] As the Covid-19 virus continues to spread globally, immediate actions to fight the pandemic is a major priority for all governments. In this time of crisis, the timeliness of response is critical. A coordinated global effort is required to ensure access to affordable, safe and effective treatments, diagnostics and vaccines that are developed, as well as access to medical supplies and devices.
The South Centre views with concern the attempts by some governments and industry players to monopolize the availability of those products for their own nationalist agenda or to maximize profit, ahead of societal interest in tackling this global public health emergency. The private enforcement of patents and government trade restrictions may pose a dire threat to the containment of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Fair Dealing and Emergency Remote Teaching in Canada

[Samuel Trosow and Lisa Macklem] In the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, Canadian post-secondary institutions are replacing classroom-based instruction with online teaching for the remainder of the Winter/Spring 2020 semester. ... As instructors grapple with the mechanics of making this unanticipated conversion, most attention is focused on how to use technological tools to accomplish this transition. Less attention is being given to copyright issues. We are worried that without some affirmative intervention in the form of copyright training, opportunities to take advantage of Canada’s broad fair-dealing rights may be missed. This article explains how copyright law applies to online course materials. We hope it will assist instructors, librarians, teaching assistants, students and administrators working in Canadian colleges and universities.

Patents and Coronavirus – The Research Exemption in the U.S.

The recent COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic has raised numerous legal issues around the world. In this series of posts, Professor Jorge Contreras of the University of Utah (Salt Lake City, USA) discusses some of the patent and other intellectual property law implications arising from coronavirus and efforts to contain, diagnose and cure it.

Coronavirus and Copyright – Or, the Copyright Concerns of the Widespread Move to Online Instruction

[Eoin O’Dell] ... in our race to go online in time to deliver classes to our students, we must not forget that copyright law continues to apply. In that regard, I’m delighted to note that recent reforms to Irish copyright law will make all of our lives easier. The Copyright and Other Intellectual Property Law Provisions Act 2019 (also here) [COIPLPA] amended the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000 (also here) [CRRA] in various significant ways, in particular relating to online educational uses of copyright material.

Now Is the Time for Open Access Policies—Here’s Why

[Victoria Heath and Brigitte Vézina] Over the weekend, news emerged that upset even the most ardent skeptics of open access. Under the headline, “Trump vs Berlin” the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag reported that President Trump offered $1 billion USD to the German biopharmaceutical company CureVac to secure their COVID-19 vaccine “only for the United States.”

Global Congress Update, re: COVID 19

[Carolina Botero and Meredith Jacob] We have all been following the evolution of COVID 19, which has now been characterized as global pandemic by the World Health Organization. The safety of our participants and the health of our communities must be our highest priority, as we assess how to move forward with the Global Congress.

The Intellectual Property of Vaccines: Takeaways from Recent Infectious Disease Outbreaks

[Ana Santos Rutschman] Abstract: This Essay examines the ways in which intellectual property regimes influence incentives for the development of new vaccines for infectious diseases. Charting the tension between market forces and public health imperatives, the Essay considers an emerging solution to the long-standing problem of insufficient incentives for vaccine research and development: the rise of public-private partnerships in the health space.