Episode 88: Ellen 'T Hoen on Waiving Patents to Support Global Access to COVID Vaccines

October 19, 2021 00:26:21
Episode 88: Ellen 'T Hoen on Waiving Patents to Support Global Access to COVID Vaccines
Law Bytes
Episode 88: Ellen 'T Hoen on Waiving Patents to Support Global Access to COVID Vaccines

Oct 19 2021 | 00:26:21

/

Show Notes

The global struggle for access to COVID-19 vaccines took a dramatic turn recently as the Biden Administration in the United States unexpectedly reversed its longstanding opposition to a patent waiver designed to facilitate access to vaccines in the developing world. The shift seemingly caught many by surprise. Pharmaceutical companies were quick to voice opposition and U.S. allies found themselves being asked to take positions. That was certainly the case in Canada, where the Canadian government has steadfastly refused to support the waiver with repeated claims that it had yet to make a decision.

Ellen ‘t Hoen, is a lawyer and public health advocate with over 30 years of experience working on pharmaceutical and intellectual property policies. From 1999 until 2009 she was the director of policy for Médecins sans Frontières’ Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines. In 2009 she joined UNITAID in Geneva to set up the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP). Ellen is currently the director of Medicines Law & Policy and a researcher at the University Medical Centre Groningen. She joins the Lawbytes podcast this week to talk about the fight for a patent waiver and the implications of the Biden decision for global access to COVID vaccines.

The podcast can be downloaded here, accessed on YouTube, and is embedded below. Subscribe to the podcast via Apple Podcast, Google Play, Spotify or the RSS feed. Updates on the podcast on Twitter at @Lawbytespod.

Credits:

CNBC, Biden Administration Supports Waiver of Patent Protections for Covid Vaccines

Other Episodes

Episode 0

July 22, 2024 00:36:41
Episode Cover

Episode 210: Meredith Lilly on the Trade Risks Behind Canada’s Digital Services Tax and Mandated Streaming Payments

The battle over a digital services tax has been the subject of Law Bytes podcast episodes for several years as the Canadian government signalled...

Listen

Episode

March 18, 2024 00:32:08
Episode Cover

Episode 196: Vibert Jack on the Supreme Court's Landmark Bykovets Internet Privacy Ruling

The federal government has struggled to update Canadian privacy laws over the past decade, leaving the Supreme Court as perhaps the leading source of...

Listen

Episode 0

April 25, 2022 00:17:17
Episode Cover

Episode 126: Why Canada's Online Harms Consultation Was a Transparency and Policy Failure

This week’s Law Bytes podcast departs from the typical approach as this past week was anything but typical. As readers of this blog will...

Listen