The joint WHO/UNICEF/World Bank briefing served primarily to launch their State of the World’s Vaccines and Immunization Report.

While the report contained encouraging results, these organizations stressed the need to continued vigilance and called on donor nations to address the funding gap that still leaves millions of children at risk.

World Health Advocacy co-hosted the "Access to Rx Drugs:  What Every Patient Should Know" workshop held in Toronto, ON on September 21 & 22, 2009.  Elisabeth Fowler helped to moderate the workshop and also delivered the attached presentation, providing an overview of public engagement in HTA evaluations in other countries.

World Health Advocacy co-hosted the "Access to Rx Drugs:  What Every Patient Should Know" workshop held in Toronto, ON on September 21 & 22, 2009.  Elisabeth Fowler helped to moderate the workshop and also delivered the attached presentation, providing an overview of the process of medical innovation.

Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics
Summer 2009
Kristina M. Lybecker, Colorado College
Elisabeth Fowler, World Health Advocacy

The tension between economic policy and health policy is a longstanding dilemma, but one that was brought to the fore with the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement in 1994. The pharmaceutical industry has long argued that intellectual property protection (IPP) is vital for innovation. At the same time, there are those who counter that strong IPP negatively impacts the affordability and availability of essential medicines in developing countries.