Profile
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Deborah Gleeson

VISITING RESEARCH FELLOW, Global Health Centre
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PROFILE

 

Deborah Gleeson is a Professor of Public Health from La Trobe University, Australia. She has a Master of Public Health and a PhD in health policy.  She has been studying the global political and economic factors affecting equitable access to medicines for more than 15 years. Her research on access to medicines includes studies of the implications of international trade agreements for access to medicines, including in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Thailand, Cambodia and many other low and middle-income countries. Prof. Gleeson’s full academic profile and publications can be found here.

Deborah is currently on a visiting fellowship at the Geneva Graduate Institute where she is conducting a study of the WHO Pandemic Agreement negotiations related to access to pandemic-related health products, with co-investigator Luciano Bottini Filho from the University of Sheffield.

They hope to learn about the perspectives of knowledgeable experts on what was and was not achieved in the negotiations, and the main factors that contributed to these outcomes, including the negotiating process, who has been influential and how, and the factors external to the negotiations that shaped the outcomes.

The research aims to illuminate how future international negotiations on access to pandemic-related health products can be conducted to maximise equitable access to these products. It may also offer insights into enablers of successful international negotiations in global health – potentially applicable not only in relation to pandemics, but also other future global health challenges demanding WHO attention.

 

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

 

  • global political and economic factors affecting equitable access to medicines
  • international trade agreements and public health
  • the commercial determinants of health, particularly the corporate activities of pharmaceutical and alcohol industries
  • political and economic determinants of health
  • health policy analysis
  • global governance of health
  • pharmaceutical policy and law

 

GEOGRAPHICAL REGION OF EXPERTISE

  • Asia-Pacific

     

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

 

Baker, B., Gleeson, D., Kaplan, W., Tenni, B., Thrasher, R., & Wirtz, V. (2025). Report on Compulsory Licensing Provisions in the National Patent Legislation of 15 Middle-Income Countries: A Content Analysis and Recommendations. South Centre and the Global Economic Governance Initiative of Boston University Global Development Policy Center. https://www.southcentre.int/sc-bu-gdpc-report-november-2025/

Gleeson, D., Townsend, B., Tenni, B.F. & Phillips, T. (2023). Global inequities in access to COVID-19 health products and technologies: A political economy analysis. Health & Place, 83, 103051. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2023.103051

Tenni, B., Lexchin, J., Sovath, P., Townsend, B., & Gleeson, D. (2025). Protecting Access to Medicines After Cambodia Graduates From Least Developed Country Status: A Policy Analysis. Global Policy. https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.13485

Gleeson, D., Scheibner, J., Tenni, B., Townsend, B., & Nicol, D. (2024) Pandemic Agreement Must Include Levers to Redirect Pharmaceutical Industry Behaviour During Pandemics; Comment on “More Pain, More Gain! The Delivery of COVID-19 Vaccines and the Pharmaceutical Industry’s Role in Widening the Access Gap”. International Journal of Health Policy & Management, 13(1), 1-4. DOI: 10.34172/ijhpm.8589.

Tenni, B., Lexchin, J., Akaleephan, C., Kittitrakul, C., Townsend, B., & Gleeson, D. (2024). Factors Influencing the Prioritisation of Access to Medicines in Trade-related Intellectual Property Policymaking in Thailand. The Journal of World Intellectual Property, 27(3), 532-562. https://doi.org/10.1111/jwip.12316

Tenni, B., Moir, H.V.J., Townsend, B…Gleeson, D. (2022) What is the impact of intellectual property rules on access to medicines? A systematic review. Globalization and Health 18, 40. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-022-00826-4

Gleeson D., & Labonté R. (2020). Trade Agreements and Public Health: A Primer for Health Policy Makers, Researchers and Advocates. Palgrave MacMillan. DOI: 10.1007/978-981-15-0485-3.

Gleeson, D., Lexchin, J., Labonté, R., Townsend, B., Gagnon, M-A., Kohler, J., Forman, L., & Shadlen, K.C. (2019). Analysing the impact of trade and investment agreements on pharmaceutical policy: provisions, pathways and potential impacts. Globalization and Health, 15(1), 78. doi:10.1186/s12992-019-0518-2.

Gleeson, D., Townsend, B., Lopert, R., Lexchin, J., & Moir, H. (2019). Financial costs associated with monopolies on biologic medicines in Australia. Australian Health Review, 43, 36–42. DOI: 10.1071/AH17031.

Son, K-B., Lopert, R., Gleeson, D., & Lee, T-J. (2018). Moderating the Impact of Patent Linkage on Access to Medicines: Lessons from Variations in South Korea, Australia, Canada, and the United States. Globalization and Health, 14(101). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-018-0423-02018.