Symposium on intellectual property, innovation and health

The health of many of the people who live in the ASEAN region is poor by international standards.  Life expectancy is considerably below that of richer countries, and infant mortality rates are similarly bad. Meanwhile, infectious diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and other preventable diseases place a terrible burden on the poor.

This situation could be turned around if cheap, existing treatments and interventions were more readily available in the region.  However, some government policies like taxes and duties on medicines work against the interests of the sick, hindering access to medicines and other technologies that could improve health.

Please join International Policy Network and Minimal Government for a public symposium on these issues.

Agenda:

10am:     Welcome & opening remarks Nonoy Oplas, President, Minimal Government, Manila

10:10am:     IPRs, innovation and access: lessons from India
Prof Bibek Debroy,
•    International Management Institute, Delhi,
•    Research Professor at the Centre for Policy Research, Delhi
•    Rapporteur to the UN Commission for Legal Empowerment for the Poor (CLEP)
•    Contributing editor to the Express newspapers of India
•    Former economic advisor to the Government of India

10:35am:    Fighting the diseases of poverty
Philip Stevens, Director of Policy, International Policy Network, UK

10:55am:    The healthcare environment of the Philippines
11:20am:    Discussion

Moderator:     Dr. Epictetus Patalinghug
Prof., UP College of Business Administration