The National University of Advance Legal Studies, Kochi, is going to organize a two day International Seminar on Access to Medicines and Novel Medical Technologies – Health, Human Rights and IPR Perspectives under the auspices of its Center of Health Law and Policy, Centre for Intellectual Property Rights and Centre for Human Rights.

Date: 17th -18th August, 2015

Thematic Break:

• Right to Health as a Human Right:
  • Right to health as a fundamental human right
  • Right to universal health care, legitimate scope of right to health
  • Role of state
  • Measures to realize health care
  • Socioeconomic policies on health
  • Public participation in health care
  • Public procurement & state aid in a regulatory framework

• Realizing the Quality of Health Care:
  • Eluding risks of realization of health right
  • Standard of health care
  • Appeasing patient
  • Medical indication, communication, & self- determination
  • Passive unequal treatments
  • Subjugated quality-standard of informed consent
  • Negligence organizational liability
  • Liability of health professional under law of tort
  • Judicial intervention-compensation

• Accessibility and Affordability of Health Care System:
  • Access to essential medicines
  • Standard & safety of materials used in health care quality of drugs
  • Drug price parity & control orders and parameters of medical care, quality of therapeutic care in tools, drugs & Institutional facilities
  • Paramedical services, nursing etc
  • Safety of sampling, detection, analysis for treatment
  • Access to medical products & services

• State Action for Treating Epidemic Diseases:
  • Preventive health care
  • Diseases & asymptomatic diseases / genetic inclination towards diseases
  • Role of state in combating communicable diseases
  • Curative care for specific diseases HIV-AIDS/bird flu etc
  • Incidence response system
  • Mechanisms for immunization
  • Immunization coverage

• Sketching the Panorama of Law & Bioethics:
  • Organ transplantation
  • Organ trading and organ donation
  • The dying life
  • Life sustaining treatment
  • Bailing out treatment
  • Right to end the life
  • Presumed consent medical futility
  • End of life issues and enhanced policies

• Affording & Disposing of Medicines in a Regulatory Framework:
  • Access to medicine
  • Scope of medicine
  • Measure to realize access to medicine
  • Recent developments
  • Impact of access to medicine on life expectancy & mortality rate judicial interventions

• Parameters of & Entree to Innovative Therapeutic Technologies:
  • Regulating the quality of medicines
  • Who ensures safe medicines
  • Regulating drug use & distribution for medicinal purposes
  • Addressing a comprehensive approach towards health systems
  • Essential services
  • Technologies for improved health-types impact of innovative medicines on health
  • Access to therapeutic technologies
  • Stem cell therapy
  • Gene therapy
  • Marketing of drugs
  • Diagnosis & prognosis unethical & unnecessary diagnostic tests
  • Policies & state interventions

• Identifying Patents for Health Care:
  • Patenting human health
  • Legal and ethical issues
  • Conceptualizing human dignity & right to life
  • Points for convergence of patentability of human genome
  • Pharma patents in therapeutic & non therapeutic treatments
  • Medical diagnosis & techniques in identification
  • Pooling medicinal patent
  • Essential medicines
  • Factors affecting accessibility and affordability

• Interface Between IPR & Human Rights in Realizing Right to Access to Medicine:
  • Pharmaceuticals
  • Exclusive right to patent
  • Patentability
  • International patent system
  • GATT-TRIPS-privatization
  • Marketing
  • Knowledge of drugs
  • Asymmetries & restraints on patenting of drugs
  • Generic competition vs. Patent rights
  • Role of national and sub national jurisdictions in generic substitution of pharmaceuticals
  • Strategic misuse of IPR
  • Drug counterfeiting
  • Public access to legitimate generic drugs
  • Substantial transformation of bioequivalent drug and biodegradable drugs

• Quality of Patented Products in Health Care:
  • Clog on quality of drugs
  • Prescribing standards
  • Price parity
  • Patent pooling
  • Data exclusivity
  • Patent thickets
  • Parallel imports
  • Defective or inappropriately stored medicines
  • Enforcement measures
  • Licensing of medicines

• Medical Research – Ethical and Legal Confrontations:
  • Need of medical research for the future
  • Ethical and legal issues
  • International and Indian Standards
  • Drug trials
  • Experimentation with vulnerable groups: women, children, marginalized etc,
  • Legal and policy options

Call for Papers:

• The organisers of the Seminar call upon the legal fraternity, Academicians from other social science disciplines, Doctors, Administrators, young and upcoming research scholars, social activists, representatives of governmental and non- governmental organisations and students of relevant disciplines to present their well researched papers at the seminar, relevant to the above themes.
• Kindly confine yourself to the areas identified for the Seminar. The papers may be in Times New Roman Font 12 size in A4 format, single line spacing, not exceeding 3000 words.
• An abstract not exceeding 200 words shall be submitted for consideration. The abstract shall contain the Synopsis of the Paper, Subtitles, Reference materials for each sub-titles and conclusion indicating author’s perspective. The abstract along with the duly filled registration form must be mailed to amnmtnuals2015@gmail.com.
• The papers shall be screened by a committee. The full papers approved by the committee shall be accepted for presentation in the seminar. The intimation of selection will be made through email.
• The final paper should contain a cover page which includes Name, Designation, Relevant Discipline and Year of Study, Address, Email id and Contact number. In case of co-authorship, the covering letter should include details of both the authors.
• Abstracts and papers should be written in English, and the working language of the seminar will be English and presentations shall be done in English.
• Co-authorship is permitted, subject to a limit of maximum two authors per submission. Submission should be made by the author who will attend the seminar. If the paper is co-authored, please include the names of your co-authors in your submission form (in the appropriate order).
• Only one paper per participant will be permitted. Multiple submissions will lead to disqualification.
• No part of the paper should have been published earlier nor should it be under consideration for publication. Any form of plagiarism will result in immediate disqualification.
• Participants of the Seminar whose papers have been accepted and who needs accommodation shall intimate on or before 7th August, 2015. Accommodation charges shall be met by the participants.
• A Registration fee of Rs 1000/- is to be paid by the participants after the final acceptance of paper.

Important Dates:

Contact
Dr. Liji Samuel
Director, Centre for Health Law and Policy
Phone: +91-9497195387

Ms. Namitha K.L
Director, Centre for Human Rights
Phone: +91-9446450090

Ms. Athira P.S.
Director, Centre for Intellectual Property Rights
Phone: +91-999523004
Email: amnmtnuals2015@gmail.com
Website: www.nuals.ac.in