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Paying for Health Impact - Lecture presented by: Thomas Pogge, Leitner Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs, Yale University; President and Director of the Health Impact Fund

Published: 7 October 2013

Paying for Health Impact
Presented by: Thomas Pogge, Leitner Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs, Yale University; President and Director of the Health Impact Fund

Friday, October 11th 2013
14h30 to 16h00
NCDH Room 100 (Moot Court)
3644 rue Peel (entry via 3660 Peel)

Space is limited. Kindly RSVP to rghl.law [at] mcgill.ca

The lecture is approved for continuing legal education (CLE) accreditation by the Barreau du Québec (1.5h) #10075976. Please specify if a member of the Barreau when you RSVP.

Abstract
One-third of all human lives end in early death from poverty-related causes. Many of these premature deaths are avoidable through global health system reforms, including to the existing patent regime. The latter provides incentives for the development and distribution of new medicines; but it also leaves gaps, especially in poor regions. The Health Impact Fund is a mechanism intended to fill these gaps and to improve access to new medicines worldwide. The HIF would give pharmaceutical innovators the option to be rewarded according to the incremental health impact of their product rather than through a patent-protected mark-up. The HIF would stimulate the development of high-impact medicines (especially for currently neglected diseases), would ensure availability at low cost, and would encourage innovators to market such medicines with the aim of reducing the global disease burden. The feasibility of this reform shows that the existing medical-patent regime is severely unjust. Professor Pogge will (a) introduce the HIF proposal and its moral justification, (b) discuss its implementation, funding, and economic viability, (c) explain its advantages for pharmaceutical firms as well as the benefits for the health and welfare of affluent and poor populations and (d) report on efforts to pilot the HIF idea in particular jurisdictions.

Biography
Having received his PhD in philosophy from Harvard, Thomas Pogge is Leitner Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs and Director of the Global Justice Program at Yale. He is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science as well as President of Academics Stand Against Poverty (ASAP), an international network aiming to enhance the impact of scholars, teachers and students on global poverty, and of Incentives for Global Health, a team effort toward developing a complement to the pharmaceutical patent regime that would improve access to advanced medicines for the poor worldwide (www.healthimpactfund.org). Pogge's recent publications include Politics as Usual (Polity 2010); World Poverty and Human Rights(Polity 2008); John Rawls: His Life and Theory of Justice (Oxford 2007); and Freedom from Poverty as a Human Right (Oxford & UNESCO 2007).


For more information visit: https://www.mcgill.ca/law/channels/event/rghlihsp-annual-lecture-thomas-pogge-paying-health-impact-229885


Category: 
Mon, 10/07/2013 - 14:13
Source Site: 
/globalhealth

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