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Access to Medicines

Broken Promises: Utility Standards and Patent Applications in Canada

Broken Promises: Utility Standards and Patent Applications in Canada

The last day of June 2017 saw the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) quash the controversial Promise Doctrine. The issue at hand in AstraZeneca Canada Inc v Apotex Inc was whether the Promise Doctrine should be held as the correct standard of utility under the Patent Act. The SCC’s ruling finds the Promise Doctrine unsound […]

What Makes It My Molecule: A Look at Professor Ronald Pearlman’s Genome Editing Work

What Makes It My Molecule: A Look at Professor Ronald Pearlman’s Genome Editing Work

This past November, Professor Ronald E. Pearlman from York University’s Department of Biology gave a talk [1] at Osgoode Hall Law School to discuss the potential of the innovative CRISPR genome editing system. Central to the talk was the evolving nature of genome editing technology and the ethical concerns that come with its growing breadth of […]

Breaking the Fall Off the Patent Cliff: Can Developing Countries Help Big Pharma?

Breaking the Fall Off the Patent Cliff: Can Developing Countries Help Big Pharma?

Expiring patents are expected to contribute billions of dollars towards the loss of revenue of drug manufacturers in the years to come. To save itself from falling off the patent cliff, Big Pharma needs to restock its R&D shelves in a cost-effective manner. Aside from developing niche products like biologics and acquiring companies with promising drugs […]

Virotech Patents, Viropiracy, and Viral Sovereignty

Virotech Patents, Viropiracy, and Viral Sovereignty

INTRODUCTION Access to medicines goes hand in hand with the protection of intellectual property rights. At a time when the United States is undertaking large-scale reforms in both the intellectual property and healthcare arenas, it is worth thinking more deeply and broadly about the connections between the two. In March 2010, Congress enacted the Patient […]

The Future of Rights: Intellectual Property, Economic Inequality and the ‘Digital Divide’

The Future of Rights: Intellectual Property, Economic Inequality and the ‘Digital Divide’

A quarter century since he helped to create it, the man widely regarded as the creator of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, has renewed calls for a Digital Bill of Rights to help preserve the open and innovative character of his invention and to protect human rights in the so-called digital age.