The PatentsInHumans project marked three years in existence on the 1st of November 2025! To mark the occasion, the project is launching a series of news items over the weeks of November about selected project publications to date. Last week, we launched two infographics which provide an overview of selected project outputs from the PatentsInHumans team, including peer reviewed articles, book chapters and research blog articles.
This week, we provide an overview of the five blog articles published by PatentsInHumans team members in 2025 on the IdeasinALL Blog. The IdeasInALL blog is hosted by the ALL (Assisted Living and Learning) Institute here in Maynooth University, an institute which the PatentsInHumans Project is also affiliated with. Over the last year, our team has published a series of blog articles on IdeasInALL which focus on disseminating research on timely issues related to the ERC PatentsInHumans project to a public audience.
In May 2025, PatentsInHumans Research Assistant, Lauren Kane published a short piece on the Ideas in ALL blog, entitled; “30 Years of the TRIPS Agreement: The Need to Balance Intellectual Property Rights with the Right to Health” (09 May 2025). Against the backdrop of World Intellectual Property Day 2025 celebrated on the 26th of April, and in a year which also marked 30 years since the TRIPS Agreement came into force, this blog focused on the tensions arising between the human right to health and intellectual property rights. It contended that, alongside celebrating the beneficial role of intellectual property rights in encouraging new innovation in the healthcare context, we must also be cognisant of the potential impacts that patents can have in relation to the accessibility of medicines. Ultimately, it argued that there is a need for greater consideration of the potential human rights implications of how intellectual property rights, such as patents, are exercised over health technologies.
Later in May 2025, Sharon Adedapo, PatentsInHumans Research Assistant, published a short piece on the Ideas In ALL blog, titled, Intellectual Property Injunctions over Health-Related Technologies: Balancing Patient Interests and Intellectual Property Rights’ (16th May 2025). The blog explored how various enforcement mechanisms for Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) can impact access to health-technologies, including medicines, vaccines, and tests. IPRs, particularly patent rights, can be useful, in certain contexts, to promote innovation in the healthcare sector. However, the enforcement of IPRs, in certain contexts, must be weighed carefully against the possibility that they could limit access to life-saving technologies and medicine. A key focus of the blog was on the role of injunctions related to patent infringement over health technologies. They raise significant issues on how to protect patent holders’ rights without compromising access to life-saving medical treatments. Issuing an injunction may have negative consequences when a patented product involves technology that could save lives. The article discussed the discretion of courts to consider the possible effects on public health and patients, including recent cases where this is considered in: Edwards Lifesciences v Boston Scientific [2018] and Evalve v Edwards Lifescienses [2020].
On 4 July 2025, the Ideas in ALL Blog published a blog post by Dr Opeyemi Kolawole, a postdoctoral researcher on the PatentsinHumans Project. The blog post, titled ‘Proposed European Union Reforms to the Supplementary Protection Certificate Framework: Implications for Access to Medicines in the EU?’, examined the proposed amendments to the European Union’s Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC) framework, including current reform proposals which would impact SPCs for pharmaceuticals and other medicinal products. Specifically, the blog post examined whether, and to what extent, these reforms could affect access to medical products and technologies within the EU.
In October 2025, PatentsInHumans Researchers Lauren Kane and Sharon Adedapo published their blog ‘Turning Ambitions into Action: Reflecting on Our First International Intellectual Property Conference at EPIP 2025′ in Ideas in ALL, the blog space of the ALL Institute. In their blog, they reflected on their experience attending the conference alongside Professor Aisling McMahon and Dr Karen Walsh (MU School of Law and Criminology) and they provided an overview of the interesting presentations and panels they attended throughout the course of the conference.
Alongside attending conference sessions, they both presented a paper at EPIP. Prof Aisling McMahon and Lauren Kane co-presented a paper in the ‘IP and Access to Health Technologies’ session on Thursday afternoon, entitled; ‘Patents and Access to Patented Health-Technologies in Everyday Healthcare Contexts: Implications and Limitations of Addressing Access Issues Through a Right to Health Approach.’ This paper explored whether, and to what extent, the right to health could be used at the national level by patients, and States, to secure broader access to patented emerging health technologies.
Prof Aisling McMahon and Sharon Adedapo also presented their co-authored paper entitled ‘Edwards v Meril – Injunctions as a Remedy for Patent Infringement for Health Technologies: A Critical Analysis of the Unified Patent Court’s Discretion to Balance Patient Interests and Rightsholder Interests’ in the ‘IP and Dispute Resolution’ panel. This paper examined the newly created Unified Patent Court’s (UPC), exploring the discretion of the UPC to consider patient interests in injunction cases over life-saving medical devices, and analysed the recent UPC’s decision in Edwards Lifesciences v Meril (2024).
Also in October 2025, Lauren Kane published a short piece on the Ideas in ALL blog, entitled: “High Priced Medicines, Intellectual Property Rights, and Access Barriers: Médicins Sans Frontières Report Calls for Better Access to Tuberculosis Medicines in Europe” (17 October 2025). This blog article examines the findings of a recent report published by Médicins Sans Frontières (MSF): “Bridging the Gap: Securing Access to Essential TB Medicines in the EU and EEA” in June 2025. Against a backdrop of increasing TB incidence in Europe, this report highlighted various challenges faced in relation to securing access to effective and affordable TB medicines in Europe, including high prices. Specifically, the blog article focuses on the role of intellectual property rights in access to medicines, including TB medicines. Moreover, it also explored potential avenues identified by MSF to address such access issues, including challenging secondary patents over essential TB medicines. Ultimately, it makes the case for greater consideration of and embedding of public interests within access to medicines frameworks.
Congratulations to all PatentsInHumans team members on these blogs, and thank you to the ALL Institute for including these articles on the Ideas in ALL Blog and to the ALL Blog Editors for their help and advice.