Jayasree K. Iyer to address WIPO Global Challenges Seminar on access to vaccines

Jayasree K. Iyer, Executive Director of the Access to Medicine Foundation, will speak at the WIPO Global Challenges Seminar on Vaccines on Wednesday, November 8, 2017, in Geneva. The seminar will take its theme from WIPO’s new Global Challenges Report “Vaccines: Accelerating Innovation and Access”, which will be launched at the event.

Together, the speakers will cover the current situation regarding access to vaccines, how the vaccine market works, the role for pharmaceutical companies and how vaccine companies measure up to stakeholder expectations. They will also discuss the role of product development partnerships to improve access. The seminar is being organised for a diverse audience, including representatives of non-governmental organisations, intergovernmental organisations and the pharmaceutical industry.

During her presentation, Jayasree will discuss how vaccine companies are responding to global calls to increase access to vaccines, drawing on findings from the Foundation’s Access to Vaccines Index, published in March 2017. The Access to Vaccines Index is the first publicly available data-driven tool to present the landscape of vaccine company behavior when it comes to making vaccines more accessible to communities that need them. By uncovering which access mechanisms are working in the vaccine industry, where and why, the Index is intended to help ensure global vaccine markets serve all populations. Jayasree will also draw on these themes during a panel discussion chaired by Professor Koenraad Debackere of Leuven University.

About the WIPO Global Challenges Seminar series

WIPO’s Global Challenges program seeks to raise awareness and understanding of the complex connections between global health and access to medical technologies, innovation, technology transfer and trade.