O’Neill Institute Colloquium: International Trade & Health

(SEPTEMBER 17, 2015)—The O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law fall colloquium series continues Wednesday, Sept. 23 with a focus on the intersection of international trade and health.

Panelists will discuss the implications of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement, how changes to India’s patent laws threaten global health, special challenges facing middle-income countries, and lessons learned from the global HIV/AIDS response, among other topics.

The O’Neill Institute Colloquium, offered annually, is an interdisciplinary course that draws from the work of scholars, policymakers and the general health community.

GUEST SPEAKERS:

Thomas J. Bollyky is the senior fellow for global health, economics and development at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). He is also an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University. Prior to joining to CFR, Bollyky was a fellow at the Center for Global Development and director of intellectual property and innovation at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), where he led the negotiations for medical technologies in the U.S.-Republic of Korea Free Trade Agreement and represented USTR in the negotiations with China on the safety of food and drug imports. He was a Fulbright scholar to South Africa, where he worked as a staff attorney at the AIDS Law Project on treatment access issues related to HIV/AIDS, and an attorney at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP. Bollyky has testified multiple times before the U.S. Senate and his work has appeared in the New York Times, Science, Foreign Affairs, the Journal of the American Medical Association, the Atlantic, and the Lancet. He is a member of the advisory committee for the Clinton Global Initiative and has served as a consultant to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Bollyky received his BA in biology and history at Columbia University and his JD at Stanford Law School. In 2013, the World Economic Forum named Bollyky as one of its global leaders under forty.

Peter Maybarduk directs Public Citizen’s Global Access to Medicines Program, which helps developing countries overcome patent-based and other pharmaceutical monopolies in order to promote access to medicines for all. Maybarduk has provided in-depth and in person technical and strategic assistance to partners on every continent. His work has yielded major HIV/AIDS medicine price reductions, new state access to medicines policies, and global shifts toward anti-counterfeiting policies that safeguard generic competition. Maybarduk’s analysis and advocacy have been instrumental in developing widespread opposition to measures in the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement that would harm public interests including health and internet freedom. Maybarduk studied law at the University of California at Berkeley and anthropology at the College of William and Mary in Virginia. He also directs International Professional Partnerships for Sierra Leone (IPPSL), a non-profit dedicated to supporting public sector development in one of the world’s least developed countries.

Judit Rius Sanjuan is the US Manager and Legal Policy Advisor of the Access Campaign for Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in New York. The Access Campaign’s purpose is to ensure greater access to, and the development of, life-saving and life prolonging medicines, diagnostic tests, and vaccines for patients. Prior to joining the MSF Access Campaign, Rius worked at Knowledge Ecology International (KEI), providing technical assistance to developing countries on intellectual property law and in negotiations at the World Health Organization and the World Intellectual Property Organization to promote greater access and sharing of knowledge goods. In addition, Rius was an adjunct professor at Georgetown Law School where she co-taught a human rights fact-finding seminar on access to essential medicines in Central America. Rius also worked in the legal departments of an international pharmaceutical company, an information technology consulting and software firms as legal counsel. Rius co-authored the curriculum for the postgraduate course on legal implications of open source software at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. She also collaborated with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Electronic Frontier Foundation, and with the Stanford Center for Internet and Society among others. Rius received a Licenciatura en Derecho (JD equivalent) from Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain, and a Master’s Degree in International Studies from Pompeu Fabra and Geneva Universities. In January 2006, she graduated from Stanford Law School with an LLM in Law, Science, and Technology.

WHEN:

Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2015

1:20 – 3:20 p.m.

WHERE:

Georgetown University Law Center

Eric E. Hotung Building, Room 2001

550 First Street, NW

Washington, D.C. 20001

Space is limited. Media interested in attending should email km463@georgetown.edu.

The Twitter hashtag for this event is #oneillcolloquium.

Click here for more information on O’Neill Institute events.

The O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University is the premier center for health law, scholarship, and policy. Its mission is to contribute to a more powerful and deeper understanding of the multiple ways in which law can be used to improve the public’s health, using objective evidence as a measure. The O’Neill Institute seeks to advance scholarship, science, research, and teaching that will encourage key decision-makers in the public, private, and civil society to employ the law as a positive tool for enabling more people in the United States and throughout the world to lead healthier lives.

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