AIPPI Webinar: ‘WTO TRIPS Council response to COVID-19: Developments and possible implications’

AIPPI is pleased to announce a new webinar on 27 July at 1 pm CEST about the response to COVID-19 from the WTO TRIPS Council.

Starting in late 2020, several countries began advocating for a waiver from the WTO regarding the implementation, application, and enforcement of certain provisions of the TRIPS agreement. This proposal was met with opposition from a number of other countries. The ensuing discussions at the WTO TRIPS Council culminated in a Ministerial Decision adopted on June 17, 2022, primarily addressing the subject of vaccines. The TRIPS Council set a deadline for deciding whether to extend this Ministerial Decision to include diagnostics and therapeutics. This deadline has been postponed, and a final decision is yet to be made.

The expert panel will offer an overview of the developments on this critical issue and predict possible outcomes, as well as discuss some of the implications from Intellectual Property, economic, and social perspectives.

Moderator:

• Catherine Mateu (c.mateu@armengaud-guerlain.com)
  Admitted to the Paris Bar since 1999, Catherine Mateu has over fifteen years of experience in French and European intellectual Property law. Defending the interests of all types of companies, her strategic analysis, litigation, and contract practice encompass all Intellectual Property and related rights law. A recognized expert, Catherine Mateu’s work is regularly cited by Who’s Who Legal, Managing Intellectual Property, IP Stars, Chambers, Legal 500, Décideurs, Women in Business Law, etc. Fluent in English and also bilingual in French and Spanish, Catherine Mateu has developed extensive international expertise.

Speakers:

• Hans Sauer
  H. Sauer is Deputy General Counsel and Vice President for Intellectual Property for the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, a major Washington, D.C.-based trade association representing over 1,000 biotechnology companies from the medical, agricultural, environmental and industrial sectors. At BIO, Mr. Sauer advises the organization’s board of directors, amicus committee, and various staff committees on patent and other Intellectual Property-related matters. Prior to taking his current position at BIO in 2006, he was Chief Patent Counsel for MGI Pharma, Inc., and Senior Patent Counsel for Guilford Pharmaceuticals Inc.
  Mr. Sauer has over 25 years of professional in-house experience in the biotechnology industry, where he worked on several drug development programs, being responsible for patent prosecution and portfolio oversight, clinical trial health information privacy, and sales and marketing legal compliance. Mr. Sauer did his postdoctoral fellowship at Genentech, Inc. in South San Francisco, and holds a M.S. degree from the University of Ulm in his native Germany; a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Lund, Sweden; and a J.D. degree from Georgetown University Law Center where he serves as adjunct professor.

• Ken Shadle (k.shadlen@lse.ac.uk)
  Ken Shadle is Professor of Development Studies in the Department of International Development of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Ken works on the global and cross-national politics of Intellectual Property. He is the author of Coalitions and Compliance: The Political Economy of Pharmaceutical Patents in Latin America (2017) and multiple articles on the globalization of pharmaceutical patenting from the 1990s to the present. He has conducted extensive research on the functioning of patent offices, analysing national differences in pharmaceutical patent examination outcomes. Most recently, during the COVID-19 pandemic, he published articles on innovation, production, and access to vaccines and therapeutics in The Lancet, Health Affairs, Research Policy, Social Science and Medicine, and Issues in Science and Technology. He is currently investigating the political economy of technology transfer for production of therapeutics and vaccines.

• Antony Taubman (antony.taubman@wto.org)
  Antony Taubman has served since 2009 as Director of the WTO’s Intellectual Property, Government Procurement and Competition Division, with responsibility for a wide range of WTO activities in these fields including coordination on the intersections between public health, trade policy and the Intellectual Property system, with a particular focus on the international response to the COVID-19 pandemic. From 2002 to 2009, he directed the Global Intellectual Property Issues Division of WIPO (including the Traditional Knowledge Division and Life Sciences Program), covering IP and genetic resources, traditional knowledge and folklore, the life sciences, and related global issues including public health and climate, the environment, climate change, human rights, food security, bioethics and indigenous issues. An earlier appointment at WIPO covered development cooperation in Asia and the Pacific, redesign of the program and budget, and policy development. A diplomatic career with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) concluded with service as Director, International Intellectual Property, engaged in multilateral and bilateral negotiations on IP issues, domestic policy development, regional cooperation, and TRIPS dispute settlement.
  Earlier service included disarmament policy and participation in the negotiations on the Chemical Weapons Convention, and postings to the Australian Embassy in Tehran as Deputy Head of Mission, and to the Hague as Alternate Representative to the Preparatory Commission for the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and Chair of the Expert Group on Confidentiality as a component of the system for verification of disarmament commitments.
  In 2001 he joined the Australian Centre for Intellectual Property in Agriculture and the College of Law at the Australian National University, teaching and researching on international IP law.
  In 2008, the Rockefeller Foundation awarded him a Bellagio residential fellowship for his work on TRIPS and public policy issues. He has authored numerous publications on the TRIPS Agreement and international IP law and policy, and cognate policy fields such as public health, competition policy and the digital economy.