Executive Education: Pharmaceuticals and the Law (Hybrid)

Course Outline

Recent events including the COVID pandemic have brought pharmaceuticals, and the intellectual property and liability considerations around them to the forefront of legal and policy, as well as public debate. Although the business and innovation practices of the pharmaceutical industry are largely based on patents, other intellectual property rights including trademarks and trade secrets are highly relevant too. The industry benefits from research and innovation taking place elsewhere and government policy supporting life sciences and biomedicine needs also to be taken into consideration. At the same time, product liability issues for both pharmaceuticals and related developments cannot be side-lined whilst the human rights considerations of involved companies requires further and better understanding by legal professionals, policy makers and the public at large. Recent incidents including the cases brought against Purdue Pharma in the United States over marketing practices start to highlight some of the above issues but many other considerations received far less attention but are nonetheless critical.

Building on the combined expertise of two leading institutions in this area - The British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL) and the Centre for Commercial law Studies (CCLS) at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) - this is a wide-ranging course offering diverse legal and interdisciplinary perspectives exploring the nexus between global public health, intellectual property, regulation, liability and human rights issues

Course topics:

Pharma - Regulation, Liability and Broader Responsibilities

• Global Health Law - Implications for Pharmaceutical Companies
• Pharma, Intellectual Property and International Trade Law
• Access to medicines: from hiv/aids to covid-19
• Product Liability and pharma
• Comparative approaches to pharmaceutical regulation
• Business and human rights and the Pharma Industry

Pharma and Intellectual Property

• Overview of the pharmaceutical industry and national systems of innovation
• Pharmaceutical intellectual property and product regulation
• The pharmaceutical industry and the life sciences revolution from 1980: Major science and technology development affecting the pharmaceutical business and Implications for intellectual property
• Personalised and precision medicine; digital medicine
• What does the pharmaceutical industry patent?
• Alternative pharmaceutical innovation models

 
Course tutors:

• Professor Uma Suthersanen, Queen Mary University of London
• Professor Graham Dutfield, University of Leeds
• Professor Duncan Fairgrieve, BIICL
• Dr. Irene Pietropaoli, BIICL

 
Who is the course for?

The course would be beneficial for legal practitioners including those in private practice or working as in house counsel for pharmaceutical or other healthcare services; executives of such companies including compliance officers; civil servants including those working for national health services or in setting health policy; those working for international organizations (including but not limited to the WTO, WIPO, WHO) and for NGOs (including humanitarian and development organizations that have programming in the field of health and anyone else with a keen interest in the link between public health, intellectual property and regulation.

Pricing and Registration

The course cost is £1200 per person.

Course Format: This is a hybrid course, being offered in person at the BIICL office in Russell Square, London and virtually.

Participants at BIICL short courses are also invited to join exclusive events for trainees following completion of the course.

Course Discounts

A 15% discount is available for:

• Individual Members of BIICL
• Students of the Centre for Commercial Law Studies
• Alumni of the Centre for Commercial Law Studies

Group discounts:

• 15% discount for groups of 3 or more attendees from NGO organisations or staff of government
• 15% discount for groups of 5 or more attendees from commercial organisations

To apply for any of the discounted rates, please Contact Us.

Training scholarships

The British Institute of International and Comparative Law is committed to equality and opportunity in the legal profession and to support greater engagement of under-represented groups in the legal profession.

In our efforts in this regard we are delighted to offer 3 scholarships for each of our short courses to participants from communities and backgrounds currently under-represented in the legal community.

Applications for training scholarships must be received at least three weeks ahead of the course start date (26 August 2024).

Find out more about training scholarships 

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