UN Global Dialogue On Innovation And Access To Medicines This Week

The United Nations Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines is holding a global dialogue this month, attended by governments, civil society, industry and academia, to discuss potential solutions to promote innovation and at the same time increase access to medicines. The first public dialogue session is this week, on 10 March in London.

The High-Level Panel was established in November. In December, the panel issued a call for contributions to address the issue of alignment of the rights of inventors, and international human rights laws, trade rules and public health (IPW, Public Health, 1 February 2016).

The panel has received over 170 contributions from government, industry, civil society and academia on potential solutions. Short-listed contributions are expected to be discussed.

Two global dialogues are being organised: The first in London in collaboration with the Lancet and the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary University on 10 March, and the other in Johannesburg, South African on 17 March, co-hosted by the South African Department of Health.

The London dialogue will take place from 11:00 to 17:30 and will be webcast here: http://www.unsgaccessmeds.org

It will also be possible to join in the discussion by sending questions and comments through Twitter or Facebook, which will be fed into discussions where appropriate.