Civil Society Groups Address Access to Medicines and Intellectual Property in Kazakhstan

OSI's Access to Essential Medicines Initiative and the Soros Foundation-Kazakhstan organized a three-day meeting on access to medicines in Almaty on November 18-20, 2009.

During the first two days of the meeting, civil society groups analyzed the results of a survey showing that many people do not have access to basic, essential medicines. To address this problem, the groups explored opportunities to improve transparency and accountability of the drug procurement and supply management chain. 

The third day, co-organized by United Nations Development Programme, brought together civil society activists and government representatives for a discussion on the implication of newly proposed intellectual property legislation for access to medicines. The resulting product of the third day was a draft resolution for the World Trade Organization, which addressed intellectual property and access to medicines issues in Kazakhstan.