Photos: © WHO

The Graduate Institute’s Global Health Programme, with Seton Hall Law School, will hold its second Executive Course on Intellectual Property, Diplomacy and Global Public Health from 15-17 February in Geneva.

Intellectual property issues have come to play an increasingly important role in discussions of national and global health problems. Yet, individuals whose primary expertise is health or diplomacy may find these discussions inaccessible because they lack a sufficient understanding of basic intellectual property concepts and their relationship to global public health. The purpose of the course is to help fill this gap by exploring current debates about health-related aspects of intellectual property from a global public health perspective. A key goal of the course will be to develop concrete tools for implementing the World Health Organization’s Global Strategy and Plan of Action on Public Health, Innovation, and Intellectual Property.

Among the current and emerging issues in intellectual property and global public health covered in the course are: TRIPS and the DOHA Declaration; counterfeiting; technology transfer and open access to knowledge; incentivising new treatments for diseases in developing countries and more. The programme includes speaker panels, lectures by renowned experts and negotiators, case studies and working groups.

The target audience for the course includes Alumni from the Global Health Programme’s Executive Course on Global Health Diplomacy, health and international relations professionals from departments of international health, ministries of foreign affairs and development cooperation as well as other professionals from international and regional organisations, NGOs, philanthropic organisations, universities and the private sector.

More information on the Executive Course on Intellectual Property, Diplomacy and Global Public Health is available on the Executive Education website.

The Graduate Institute’s Global Health Programme is a research endeavour which concentrates on examining links between health, foreign policy, trade and development.

The programme recently held a Global Health Diplomacy Symposium with Margaret Chan, Pascal Lamy and Francis Gurry probes health, innovation and trade.