May 12, 2025
Thirty years ago, in the heart of Marrakech, the World Trade Organization was born—and with it, the TRIPS Agreement, a sweeping set of global rules on intellectual property. Three decades later, communities around the world are still paying the price.
This May, the story comes full circle.
From 13–15 May 2025, activists, experts, government representatives, and community leaders from across the globe will return to Marrakech for the Third Global Summit on Intellectual Property and Access to Medicines (GSIPA2M). Under the bold theme “TRIPS@30: The Access Crisis,” the summit will shine a necessary and unflinching spotlight on how trade rules have undermined the right to health—and what must be done to change that.
Organized by ITPC Global and the Make Medicines Affordable consortium, the summit takes place at a moment of historic urgency: skyrocketing medicine prices, collapsing global health funding, multiple pandemics, and the return of monopolistic trade deals.
“This is not just another conference,” says Solange Baptiste, Executive Director of ITPC. “This is a political intervention. We’re here to say: enough. TRIPS has protected profits for 30 years—it’s time to protect people.”
“Hosting GSIPA2M in Marrakech is deeply symbolic—and urgent,” says Mohammed Zniber, Chairperson of ITPC MENA. “This is where TRIPS began, and it’s where the global access movement comes to demand justice. Communities in the MENA region know firsthand the cost of monopolies and neglect. This summit is our moment to shift the narrative—locally and globally—toward equity, solidarity, and health for all.”
From HIV to COVID—and Beyond
GSIPA2M was launched in 2018 as a space to unite the global access to medicines movement around a simple truth: intellectual property (IP) rules must never stand in the way of life-saving treatment. The first summit, also held in Marrakech, brought together over 150 participants to assess the damage caused by TRIPS. In 2022, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the second summit convened in Istanbul and called for urgent systemic reform.
Now, in 2025, the call becomes even louder.
With a packed agenda of panels, workshops, and strategy sessions, GSIPA2M 2025 will tackle urgent issues such as:
- TRIPS flexibilities and legislative reform
- Voluntary licensing and the pharmaceutical industry’s profit playbook
- Compulsory licensing victories from Colombia to Kazakhstan
- The collapse of U.S. health funding and its global impact
- Strengthening regional production of medicines and vaccines
- The compounding crises of war, repression, and climate change
Crucially, the summit will also celebrate the movements that never stopped fighting—people living with HIV, hepatitis, cancer, tuberculosis, and other diseases—who have used every possible tool, from patent oppositions to direct action, to challenge the power of pharmaceutical monopolies.
Honoring a Legacy
In a special moment of reflection and gratitude, GSIPA2M 2025 will include a tribute to Professor Hakima Himmich—a pioneering leader in Morocco’s HIV response, a lifelong defender of health equity, and a powerful voice for community-centered care in the MENA region and beyond. Her work has inspired generations of activists, and her legacy will continue to shape the fight for access.
A Time to Strategize—and Reclaim
As the world marks three decades of TRIPS, GSIPA2M 2025 will not be a place for despair. It will be a space for strategic resistance.
It’s a place where voices too often sidelined in Geneva or silenced in trade talks can take center stage. A place to draw clear lines between global trade injustice and lived health inequalities. A place to build the bold cross-movement solidarity that our time demands.
Above all, it’s a place to reclaim access—not as a privilege, but as a right.
GSIPA2M 2025
13–15 May 2025
Marrakech, Morocco
Theme: TRIPS@30 – The Access Crisis
Follow updates at www.itpcglobal.org and join the conversation on social media using #GSIPA2M2025
