GSIPA2M – Day 1

Welcome to the first day of 2022 GSIPA2M – The Pandemic Edition: Reclaiming Access

  • Sergiy Kondratyuk, ITPC Global, Ukraine

Sergiy focuses on Intellectual Property and access to medicines. Before joining ITPC, he led advocacy to improve access to treatment at 100% Life (the All-Ukrainian Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS). In particular, Sergiy coordinated implementation of IP interventions, civil society anti-corruption monitoring of HIV, HCV, TB medicines, state procurements, demand creation and treatment optimization efforts. He earned his law degree from the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and master’s degree in international human rights law and intellectual property from Lund University, Sweden. Based in Kyiv, Ukraine.

  • Solange Baptiste, ITPC Global, South Africa

Solange Baptiste leads community activists and allies across the globe to deliver ITPC’s mission to enable people in need, to access optimal and affordable HIV treatment through treatment education, demand creation and targeted community-led interventions to make medicines and diagnostics more available, accessible and affordable. ITPC uses HIV as an entry point to ensure the right to health for all. She has more than 15 years of global program management and advocacy experience and specializes in monitoring and evaluation. She has a depth of knowledge in social and political epidemiology, health financing and community systems strengthening in the developing world through my work on USAID/PEPFAR health and development, bilateral and multi-county projects across Latin America, Africa and Asia. She has worked extensively on maternal and infant health in Ukraine and supported several other projects, including ones in Pakistan, Tanzania, South Africa, and her home country, Trinidad. She earned a Bachelor’s in Biology from Tuskegee University and a Master of Science in Population and International Health from the Harvard School of Public Health. When she is not working, she can be found whipping up a mean Trinidadian curry and a good chocolate cake.

  • Othman Mellouk, ITPC Global, Morocco

Othman Mellouk is an orthodontist by profession and currently leads ITPC’s works on overcoming intellectual property-related barriers to access to medicines. Before joining ITPC, he worked for the Association de Lutte Contre le Sida (ALCS) in Morocco, where he participated in the development of the first prevention program targeting men having sex with men in MENA. From 2002 to 2010 he was the chair of the Marrakech city branch of ALCS, and was in charge of international relations of ALCS. He is one of the most active advocates for access to treatment in the MENA region with a particular focus on the question of intellectual property rights and their effect on access to treatment. He has published several articles and reports about access to medicines in Morocco and the MENA region and has been involved in research on monitoring access to treatment progress with the Treatment Monitoring and Advocacy Project of ITPC.

 

Opening Panel

  • Sibongile Tshabalala, Treatment Action Campaign, South Africa 

Sibongile Tshabalala is the National Chairperson of TAC. Sibongile also sits in the National Working Committee and forms part of the Board and The Executive manager of the organization. She’s currently part of the global fund country coordinating mechanism, she is also a board member at rural Health Advocacy Project and has recently been appointed to sit in the minister’s advisory committee on the COVID19 vaccine. Sibongile is part of the top 5 PLHIV sector leaders as she is openly living with HIV, having been diagnosed with HIV in 2000 after a long and severe illness.

  • Shiba Phurailatpam, Asia Pacific Network of People Living with HIV (APN+), Thailand 

Shiba Phurailatpam is the Regional Coordinator of the Asia Pacific Network of People Living with HIV (APN+). HIV-positive individuals from eight different countries founded APN+ in 1994 and today its membership includes nationals of 31 countries in the region. It was established in response to the need for a collective voice for people living with HIV in the region, to better link people living with HIV in the region with positive networks throughout the world, and to support regional responses to widespread stigma and discrimination and better access to treatment and care. Before joining APN+, Shiba worked with the United Nations Development Programme and ActionAid International and has devoted his life to fighting for the rights of people living with HIV. He is a longtime treatment advocate and activist fighting for the rights of people living with HIV as well as marginalised communities. 

  • Lorena di Giano, Fundación Grupo Efecto Positivo (FGEP), Argentina

Maria Lorena Di Giano is a lawyer serving as Executive Director of Fundación Grupo Efecto Positivo (FGEP) in Argentina. Currently, she is coordinating a national program focused on improving access to ARVs by addressing intellectual property. She is an experienced advocate who has dedicated her professional background to defending the human rights of people with HIV and HepC. Lorena Di Giano served from December 2015 to September 2016 as a member of the Expert Advisory Group of the United Nations Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines and Innovation. 

  • Yelena Rastokina, Answer, Kazakhstan

Yelena Rastokina is an NGO-activist, working on AIDS issues for 12 years. She is HIV positive. In 2009 she created the NGO “Answer”, working with people living with HIV in East Kazakhstan. She became a director of “Answer” by 2015. The main directions of its work are access to anti-retroviral (ARV) therapy; and social non-medical services, intellectual property barriers to access to medicines.

 

Plenary 1: Two Years of COVID: Fighting the Good Fight!

  • Jose Maria Di Bello, FGEP, Argentina

José María Di Bello is a university professor, holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology. President of Fundación Grupo Efecto Positivo (FGEP), and an active representative of Argentina of RedLAM (the Latin American Network for the Access to Medicines). He is part of the secretariat of the REDAR Positiva (Argentina Network of Positive People) and coordinated the RCRC+ (Red Cross and Red Crescent network of people with HIV worldwide), he is member of TB coalitions of America, he was focal point of REDLA+ (Latin-American Network of people with HIV) and he was of Health Director of Argentina Red Cross.

  • Lucksamephen Sarnchawanakit, Drug Patent Information Center, Thailand

Miss Lucksamephen Sarnchawanakit, since 2000 until now, has been the Head of the Department of Drug Patent Information Center, Research and development Institute, The Government    Pharmaceutical Organization (GPO).  Since 2014, Lucksamephen has been working closely with and supporting the civil society groups in Thailand in monitoring and providing patent information to civil society groups and the government, and also filing patent oppositions against unmerited drug patents in order to promote access to medicines for all people in Thailand.

  • Alan Rossi, ABIA/GTPI, Brazil

Alan Rossi Silva is a staff attorney at Brazilian Interdisciplinary AIDS Association – ABIA and PhD student in Law at the Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ).

  • Umunyana Rugege, Section 27, South Africa (virtual)

Umunyana Rugege is the Executive Director of SECTION27, a human rights organisation based in South Africa that seeks to achieve substantive equality and social justice.  She is a human rights lawyer and has been with SECTION27 since its inception in 2010. Umunyana has played a leading role in several human rights cases advancing the right to health and has led policy development and law reform that aims to realise the constitutional right to health in South Africa.

  • Aditya Wardhana, Indonesia AIDS Coalition, Indonesia

Aditya Wardhana is a passionate community health activist and public health professional that served as an Executive Director of NGO Indonesia AIDS Coalition (IAC), a community-based organization which aims to fulfil the rights of people living with HIV and key affected population, especially the rights of health. Since it was first established in 2011, he has led IAC into advocacy works in the issues of HIV Program sustainability in Indonesia in terms of funding, budget allocation, CSO fund channeling and commodity price; promoting enabling environment for key population of HIV and AIDS, access to affordable medicines and HIV legal framework.

  • Anastasia Homeniuk, 100% Life, Ukraine

Anastasia Homeniuk is Consultant on IP and access to medicines at 100 Percent Life in Ukraine. She formerly was chief specialist at the Intellectual Property Department of the Ministry of Economy in Ukraine until 2019. She’s a Junior Researcher at the Scientific-Research Institute of Intellectual Property at the National Academy of Law Science of Ukraine.

Plenary II – 2021: A Bad Year for the Access Movement? 

  • Tracy Swan, Access to Medicines Policy & Education Consultant (virtual)

Tracy Swan has been an AIDS activist since 1990; she has provided services at community health centers, hospitals, syringe exchange programs, correctional facilities and homeless shelters, led programs, and focused on improving development of, demand for and access to medical technologies for HIV, hepatitis C, COVID-19 and TB through her work with other activists and communities, Treatment Action Group, MSF Access Campaign, the US FDA antiviral advisory committee, the AIDS Clinical Trials Group, and US and WHO hepatitis C treatment guidelines panels.

  • Sergiy Kondratyuk, ITPC Global, Ukraine (virtual)

Sergiy focuses on Intellectual Property and access to medicines work. Before joining ITPC, he led advocacy to improve access to treatment at 100% Life (the All-Ukrainian Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS). In particular, Sergiy coordinated implementation of IP interventions, civil society anti-corruption monitoring of HIV, HCV, TB medicines, state procurements, demand creation and treatment optimization efforts. He earned his law degree from the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and master’s degree in international human rights law and intellectual property from Lund University, Sweden. Based in Kyiv, Ukraine.

  • Evghenii Golosceapov, Initiativa Pozitiva, Moldova

Evghenii Alexandrovici GOLOȘCEAPOV graduated from the Law Department of Moldova State University and holds LL.M in International Human Rights Law from the University of Essex, UK, also specializing in the right to health, equality and vulnerable groups. He is working with the Moldovan NGO Positive Initiative, Moldova’s patent office, finance and health authorities on the patents law reform to introduce TRIPS flexibilities and on the procurement mechanisms to support access to HIV, TB, HepC and COVID-19 medicines, vaccines and medical products.

  • Timothy Wafula, KELIN, Kenya

Timothy Wafula is a health and human rights lawyer and the Program Manager, Health and Governance thematic area at the Kenya Legal and Ethical Issues Network on HIV and AIDs (KELIN). He holds a Master’s degree in Law (public international law), a Bachelor’s degree in Law and a Post Graduate Diploma in Law from the Kenya School of Law. Timothy is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya and was admitted to the Kenyan bar in January 2016. He has previously worked as a Program Officer (HIV and TB) at KELIN and as a Research Officer at the Parliament of Kenya (Senate). Timothy’s current research and programmatic focus areas are on universal health care and governance.

  • Lauren Paremoer, University of Cape Town and People’s Health Movement, South Africa

Lauren Paremoer is a senior lecturer in the Department of Political Studies at the University of Cape Town. She has a PhD in Political Studies from the New School for Social Research. She is the coordinator of the Health Governance programme of PHM and a member of the People’s Health Movement Movement South Africa (PHM-SA) Steering Council. Her research focuses on health activism, global governance for health, and political mobilisation aimed at realising social citizenship in societies of the Global South. She has explored these themes in relation to the struggle for the right to HIV/AIDS treatment in South Africa, the social reproduction work undertaken by women, and the use of for-profit markets and philanthrocapitalism to ameliorate the worst effects of deteriorating public health systems. 

 

Parallel Workshop 1 Introduction to Covid Vaccine Patent Applications: Science and Claims 

  • María Lorena Bacigalupo, ITPC consultant, Argentina

Dr. Maria Lorena Bacigalupo holds a master and PhD in Biochemistry at University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. She was a lecturer in Biological Chemistry at University of Buenos Aires, and a postdoc researcher at the same University, working on cancer. Since 2019, she has been working as a consultant on access to medicines for FGEP in Argentina and for ITPC-Global.  

  • María Florencia Pignataro, Department of Molecular Biology and Phisiology, University of Buenos Aires (UBA), Argentina

Dr. Maria Florencia Pignataro holds a master and PhD in Biochemistry and in protein Biophysics at University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is currently a lecturer in Biological Chemistry at University of Buenos Aires, and a postdoc researcher at the same University, working on rare diseases. Since 2019, she has been working as a consultant on access to medicines for FGEP in Argentina and for ITPC-Global.

  • Carolinne Thays Scopel, ABIA, Brazil

Carolinne Scopel is a pharmacist, Public Health Ph.D. candidate at Fiocruz, professor at Rio de Janeiro Federal University School of Pharmacy, pharmaceutical consultant at the Brazilian Interdisciplinary Association for AIDS (Abia) and Working Group of Intellectual Property (GTPI).

  • Gabriela Costa Chaves, ITPC consultant, Brazil 

Gabriela Chaves is a consultant for ITPC-Global. She has over 15 years of experience working on approaches to address barriers to access to medicines, including patent barriers.  For several years she worked for civil society organizations in Brazil advocating for solutions and campaigning on the problem of high prices of monopoly HIV medicines. As a researcher in public health at the Sergio Arouca National School of Public Health/Fiocruz, she has pioneered studies related to the analysis and practical solutions on the effects on access to medicines and procurement policies of intellectual property rights and industrial policies in Brazil.

Parallel Workshop 2 – The TRIPS Waiver

  • Sangeeta Shashikant, TWN

Sangeeta Shashikant is the coordinator of TWN’s IP and Development programme. She has 17 years research and advocacy experience in intellectual property and public policy matters in particular access to medicines. She monitors and engages with international discussions at the WHO, WIPO and the WTO and has closely analysed and engaged in the TRIPs Waiver negotiations. She has authored and contributed towards several publications including “Negotiating a ‘Development Agenda’ for the World Intellectual Property Organisation” and the “The African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) Protocol on Patents: Implications for Access to Medicines”.

  • Felipe de Carvalho, ABIA, Brazil 

Felipe de Carvalho is a journalist, with a Master’s degree in International Political Economy at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). Felipe coordinates the Working Group on Intellectual Property from the Brazilian Network for the Integration of  Peoples since 2012, with a special focus on public health driven advocacy, treatment literacy, strategic litigation and mobilization campaigns. Felipe is also a Civil Society representative at the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, in the treatment pillar.

  • Sergey Golovin, ITPC EECA

Sergey Golovin has worked in the field of healthcare and treatment access for around 10 years, specializing in monitoring availability and prices of essential medicines and linking IP issues with the treatment access agenda. Currently, Sergey is Intellectual Property and Access Lead at the Treatment Preparedness Coalition in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, supervising a variety of research and advocacy projects with a focus on ways to improve treatment access using the resources of community organizations. Sergey has been a co-author of a number of articles and reports dedicated to treatment access issues, including a series of reports on HCV and HIV drug procurement in Russia, report on the community response to the HCV Epidemic in EECA, article about safety and efficacy of generic products imported for personal use etc. Sergey was part of the Global TB-CAB for two years and was involved in a number of projects related to access to TB drugs (including community advisory group meetings and drug procurement monitoring).

  • Valentina Montanaro, Peoples Vaccine Alliance (PVA)

Valentina Montanaro is PVA Global Campaign Head, based in Portugal. She is an Italian-born citizen of the world, currently based in Portugal after living many years in the UK, and Turkey. She is an incurable optimist, a consummate campaigner and an adaptive leader. She brings high-level strategy, campaigning, and communication skills developed through more than 15 years working both at the international and national levels with a broad range of political, public, private sector, and civil society stakeholders in Africa, Asia and Central America. She worked with some of the biggest INGOs –such as Oxfam, WWF, Action Aid – campaigning around the world’s most pressing environmental and development challenges.