While medicines help in treating individuals, the availability of those products is controlled by complex interactions between law, economics, policy, and medicine. This course will serve as an introductory course to highlight the fundamentals of intellectual property rights, the pharmaceutical development process, and examine effective strategies that have been used to increase access to essential medicines in developing countries. Such a multidisciplinary approach will expand individuals’ perceptions of global health and emphasize the strong potential for non-medically related fields to impact global health.

This course will assess the affordability of essential medicines throughout the world, emphasizing on the challenges intellectual property barriers place on allowing accessible drugs. The course will allow students to foster an understanding and enthusiasm for the complex issues that underlie access to medicines; a topic which is normally inaccessible to many undergraduates.

The end goal of this course is to provide students with the tools and information to challenge the problem of inaccessible drugs themselves. The format of this course is weekly 90 minute sessions consisting of guest lectures and discussions. By the end of this course students are required to make a short presentation on a potential policy solution or campaign as a final project.

Requirements:
Attendance is mandatory (50%)
Midterm (20%)
Socially Responsible Licensing Final Project (30%)

Note: Classes do not start until September 11