"The proposal of the European Commission on the new EU-wide compulsory licensing regime shows that it has drawn conclusions from the COVID-19 pandemic and the ineffectiveness of its legal mechanisms" - Dr Olga Gurgula, Senior Lecturer in Intellectual Property Law at Brunel Law School, writes in Medicines Law & Policy.
As Dr Gurgula points out the COVID-19 pandemic has turned a spotlight on the gaps in the legal tools to address such crises by the EU authorities. In order to address these issues, the European Union has initiated a reform of its pharmaceutical sector. This initiative includes (1) the revision of existing pharmaceutical regulations and (2) the introduction of novel and more potent legal instruments for handling emergencies and crises at the EU level. One of these instruments is a new regime for compulsory licensing in the EU, proposed by the European Commission.
Reported by:
Eliza Kania
eliza.kania@brunel.ac.uk