Thursday 7 March 2019, 18.00, Room EB206

In its resistance to change, access to patented medicines is the classic wicked problem, requiring contradictory and changing requirements with inter-connected elements and an associated economic burden that is difficult to grasp let alone address. The access gap now preoccupies the UN, as well as US and European authorities and has ceased to be a mere problem of poverty. In this lecture, I will discuss how the access to medicines issue is a manifestation of the dysfunction that is at the heart of how we treat innovation through patent systems.

Recommended reading:
1. ‘The Construction of Legitimacy in European Patent Law’ 2017(3) IPQ 221-244 [Can be downloaded here]
2. ‘Access to Patented Medicines: Are Human Rights Getting in the Way? [here]

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Dr Siva Thambisetty is Associate Professor of Law at the Department of Law of the London School of Economics and Social Sciences

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