The globalisation of intellectual property in the 80s has coincided with some of the deadliest pandemics, epidemics and outbreaks, from HIV, hepatitis C, SARS, and recently COVID -19. Tahir Amin will take us through his and his organisation’s journey over two decades in fighting the ever growing intellectual property systems being pushed by the U.S, EU and their pharmaceutical companies that are blocking affordable access to medicines for billions of low income populations around the world.
Associate Professor of History Jennifer Derr, whose scholarship explores the intersections among science, medicine, and the environment, will introduce the event. Anna Barry-Jester, a Propublica reporter covering global health, infectious diseases, and pandemics, will be in conversation with Amin after he gives a brief presentation.
This inaugural event for the Sawyer Seminar “Race, Empire, and the Environments of Biomedicine” is free and open to the public. Registration required.
The event will take place at Kuumbwa Jazz, located at: 320-2 Cedar St, Santa Cruz, CA 95060. Staff assistance is provided by The Humanities Institute.
Speaker Biography
Tahir Amin, LL.B., Dip. LP., is a founder and executive director of the Initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge (I-MAK), a nonprofit organisation working to address structural inequities in how medicines are developed and distributed. He has over 25 years of experience in intellectual property (IP) law, during which he has practised with two of the leading IP law firms in the United Kingdom and served as IP Counsel for multinational corporations. His work focuses on re-shaping IP laws and the related global political economy to better serve the public interest, by changing the structural power dynamics that allow health and economic inequities to persist.
Amin and I-MAK have also put out a 10 point plan for the Biden-Harris administration to bring equity into the patent system, and their work is highlighted in the New York Times Editorial Board’s recent endorsement of patent reform. He is a former Harvard Medical School Fellow in the Department of Global Health & Social Medicine and TED Fellow. Amin has served as legal advisor/consultant to many international groups, including the European Patent Office and World Health Organization, and has testified before the U.S. Congress on intellectual property and unsustainable drug price.