Professor Duncan Matthews on IP and the role of NGOs in promoting access to medicines in developing countries

22 February 2013 Professor Duncan Matthews spoke at the US NGO Public Citizen on 22 March 2013. Public Citizen is a non-profit organization that was established in 1971 by the American political activist Ralph Nader to champion citizen interests before Congress, the executive branch agencies and the courts in Washington DC and internationally. Professor Matthews’ talk explained the significant role that NGOs have played in promoting access to medicines in developing countries by highlighting the potential for negative consequences to result from the global intellectual property rights system and by challenging the validity of patents granted on pharmaceutical products in the developing world.