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WIPO Magazine has recently published an article on Innovation Council member, Villgro Africa, and how they are helping health startups take their ideas to market.

Villgro Africa is a Nairobi-based business incubator and early-stage investor focusing on health and life sciences. Dr Robert Karanja, the incubator’s Chief Innovation Officer and co-founder, explains how Villgro Africa is working to transform Africa’s innovation landscape and helping startups take their ideas to market.

Click here for the full story.

Supplementary protection certificates aim to offset the loss of patent protection for pharmaceutical and plant protection products that occurs due to the compulsory lengthy testing and clinical trials these products require before obtaining regulatory marketing approval.

We’ve put together a compilation of key background information on SPCs and the relevant legal regime.

Click here for more information.

GE Healthcare and Kenya-based start-up and IC member, Afya Rekod, have announced a strategic collaboration that seeks to transform care delivery through improved access to personal health data and medical records in Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. 

The partnership will give patients access to their health history and personal records, including radiological images, by enabling hospitals and diagnostic centers to host health records securely on one platform through a digital application. 

Click here for more information.

The WTO Secretariat has updated the joint indicative list compiling information on critical inputs for the manufacturing, distributing and administering of COVID-19 vaccines. The revised version incorporates feedback from industry and includes information on new critical inputs that have been identified.

The “Joint Indicative List of Critical COVID-19 Vaccine Inputs for Consultation” can be found here.

Inclusive innovation ecosystems are a priority for Innovation Council. It is for this reason that we have collaborated with WIPO and Invent Together on preparing these high-level policy panels that will take place on May 31 and June 1.

The event will focus on the importance of designing policies addressing the IP gender gap and engaging women’s participation in the innovation ecosystems of the European region.

Click here for online registration.

On 26 November 2021 the new research report about the role that intellectual property played in the development, manufacturing, and global distribution of COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics was launched in Geneva. The report was co-authored by Innovation Council’s very own Jennifer Brant, and Prof. Mark Schultz.

The report is available here, along with a slideshow of the research project.

UNCTAD’s Global Trade Update was published on 17 February 2022. It shows that in 2021 global trade growth remained strong, as its value continued to increase through each quarter of 2021. Trade growth was not only limited to goods, as trades in services also grew substantially through 2021, to finally reach pre-pandemic levels during Q4 2021.

Read the full report.

The virtual event, titled “Women-led innovation in Africa: Achieving sustainable health and gender equality on the continent” will take place in March to mark International Women’s Day. The event will demystify the notion that women have a limited role in innovation, celebrating the contribution made by women leaders, innovators, and creators to the development of societies and economies. The underpinning argument is that, without the considerable and equal participation of women in policymaking, business and innovation, it will be impossible to achieve the SDGs by 2030.

Join IFPMA, Speak Up Africa, and African women driving innovation and making advancements to achieve the SDGs on Tuesday, 08 March from 09:00-11:00 GMT / 10:00-12:00 CET. The panel will be part of Speak Up Africa’s broader African LeadHERs Forum. This virtual, two-hour moderated panel discussion will be held on Zoom, and interpretation from English to French will be available.

Register now.  

The Innovation Council and Bobab organised a discussion on expanding BioManufacturing production capacity in emerging regions. Biologics, a category of pharmaceuticals which includes products such as vaccines and monoclonal antibody treatments, are quickly becoming among the most important medical products in the world. By combining enabling government policies and technology transfer between innovators and their global partners, it will be possible to improve availability of biologics, increase health security, and enhance scientific and industrial capacity in developing countries.

Click here to see the transcript.