The conference "Access to Medicines for the Developing World: International Facilitation or Hindrance?" will be held at the Law School on Saturday and Sunday, March 9 and 10, organized by the Wisconsin International Law Journal. The event is open to the public at no charge, but registration is requested. Early registration is encouraged. Featured speakers will be experts in intellectual property law and international trade law, including law scholars, economists and members of non-governmental organizations. A list of panel participants is given below. Access to medicine has become a major public policy issue both domestically and internationally. The Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) agreement, specifically, has brought this issue to the forefront and will be examined in light of its implications for the availability of pharmaceuticals in developing nations, whose own ability to produce life-saving medicines is severely abridged for economic and other reasons. Conference panels will explore ways in which governments can work to ensure adequate and affordable drugs within an international trade regime designed to offer protection for pharmaceutical patent rights. Among the specific issues to be analyzed are different means by which access could be facilitated, technology transfer, research and development, and litigation strategies that have been employed in attempts to gain access to particular medicines or to restrict the adoption of particular strategies. To register or make inquiries, please send an e-mail to aalatif@students.wisc.edu. Saturday March 9th: 9:00am - 5:30pm

Panel One: TRIPS in context: Economics, Politics, Law and Health

Peter Drahos (Australian National University) Dr Christopher Ouma (ActionAid Kenya) Mary Layoun (UW-Madison)

Panel Two: TRIPS and access to medicines

Susan Sell (George Washington University) Carlos Correa (University of Buenos Aires, Argentina) Fred Abbott (Florida State University College of Law/University of California-Berkeley)

Lunch

Panel Three: Access to essential medicines and affordable drugs

Wilbert Bannenberg (Public Health consultant) Keith Maskus (World Bank) Nitya Nanda or Ritu Lodha (CUTS- India)

Panel Four: Technology transfer, drug supply and production in developing countries (Compulsory licensing and parallel importation)

Assad Omer (UNCTAD) Jerome Reichman (Duke University Law School) Dr. Eloan Dos Santos Pinheiros, Director of Far Manghinos, Brazil

Sunday March 10th: 9:30am - 12:30pm

Panel Five: Patents, research, and the problem of price

James Love (Consumer Project on Technology) Donald Light (University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey)

Panel Six: Strategies for gaining access to medicines (equity pricing; global fund; litigation)

Desmond Johns (UNAIDS) Jonathan Berger (Center for Applied Legal Studies, South Africa); Ellen t?Hoen (Doctors Without Borders)

Hosted by:

Wisconsin International Law Journal Professors Heinz Klug and Gregory Shaffer

Sponsored by:

University of Wisconsin Law School The Global Legal Studies Program The Center on World Affairs and the Global Economy The Institute for Legal Studies

Submitted by on February 13, 2002

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