The Department of Public Policy brings you the Policy Talks Series as a way to engage critically with today's global and local issues. Our speakers range from policy practitioners and researchers to diplomats and agency leaders to NGO and social responsibility leaders. The events typically feature a lecture or panel discussion, followed by a Q&A session, and a reception where drinks and snacks will be offered.
Overview
As we have seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, inequitable rollout of vaccines, treatments, and tests caused tremendous anger in developing countries. The lecture will address the inherent tension between innovation, prices and access. Delving into the role of innovation, intellectual property, and private and public funding, it will provide an actors’ perspective on the shifting landscape of pharmaceutical industry’s contribution to global health. Addressing the importance of the evolution of the innovation ecosystem leading to breakthroughs in treating cancer, HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C as well as developing vaccines that contained COVID-19, it will discuss successes and failures in finding the right balance between rewarding innovation and ensuring access to life-saving medicines. Additionally, it will provide insights into the ongoing Geneva negotiations on a WHO Pandemic Treaty.
About the speaker
Thomas Cueni, a seasoned figure in pharmaceutical innovation and global health policy has been at the helm of the global industry body, IFPMA, for more than seven years and served as the Secretary of the Biopharmaceutical CEO Round Table (BCR) for 36 years. Throughout his career, he played a pivotal role in shaping responses to major health crisis, including HIV/AIDS, COVID-19 pandemic and future pandemic preparedness. Thomas Cueni is recognized for his advocacy on behalf of the innovative pharmaceutical industry but also for his role in pioneering policy and access projects, including the $1bn AMR Action Fund, the Berlin Declaration industry commitment for equitable rollout of medical countermeasures in future pandemics, and representing industry on the WHO Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator.
Thomas Cueni studied economics at the University of Basel and political science at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He was a journalist, inter alia London correspondent for Swiss newspapers, during the first term of Margaret Thatcher, and his opinion columns and commentary have been accepted in the New York Times, The Financial Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Lancet, Project Syndicate, STAT. Cueni worked for Swiss Foreign Ministry as a career diplomat with postings in Paris (OECD) and Vienna (UNIDO, IAEA).