Dr. Theron Pummer, Lecturer in Philosophy and Co-Director of the Centre for Ethics, Philosophy and Public Affairs at the University of St. Andrews, is celebrating his birthday by raising money for four highly effective charities working to improve the health of people living in extreme poverty, including Incentives for Global Health (IGH). IGH is sister organization […]
Global Health/Global Justice Conference at Ryerson University: Toronto, May 7-8, 2015
In the last twenty years, extensive and uniform protections of intellectual property rights (IPRs) have been incorporated into the global trading system through initiatives such as the WTO’s Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement. Under this IPR regime, the development of new medicines is driven by the reward of high prices facilitated by temporary market exclusivity. While this method of incentivizing research has produced important innovations, it has also engendered unfortunate consequences. When a new medicine is protected from generic competition, its profit-maximizing price inevitably excludes a large proportion of the world’s population, even in affluent countries such as Canada. As a result of this system of incentives, people suffer and die needlessly as the medicines they need are out of their reach, and research is focused on medicines that can be sold at high prices, rather than on those that would lead to the greatest improvements in human health.
Binghamton Professor Launches Web Tool to Track Impact of Drugs Worldwide
BINGHAMTON, NY – Billions of dollars have been spent on developing drugs and supplying them around the world, but which companies’ drugs are actually making an impact? The Global Health Impact Index, headed by Binghamton University Associate Professor Nicole Hassoun, addresses this issue by ranking pharmaceutical companies based on their drugs’ impact on global health. […]
Internship Opportunities with Incentives for Global Health and ASAP UK
Interesting intern positions are available at Incentives for Global Health and ASAP UK.
Nicole Hassoun: Harnessing Consumer Choice to Drive Global Health Impact
Nicole Hassoun, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Binghamton, is working to harness the power of socially conscious consumers to motivate pharmaceutical companies to meet the health needs of people in poverty. She has recently created an index that ranks drug companies according to their positive impact on global health. By informing consumers of which companies are making a difference and which are not, she hopes to stimulate demand for products linked to global health impact.