CALL FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST (EOI) SPECIAL ADVISER ON PATENT LAW AND POLICY

Background

ITPC was birthed in 2003 in Cape Town, South Africa, by a committed group of 125 HIV activists from 65 countries who refused to accept a world in which people living with HIV were denied access to life-saving medicine. As ITPC grew into a Global Activist Network (GAN) advocating for the needs of communities affected by HIV and TB, it also laid the groundwork for community-driven work extending beyond singular diseases and addressing the systemic issues affecting people’s health and quality of life— exposing and resisting entrenched global power dynamics that consistently prioritize privilege and profit over the right to health and dignity. Today, we celebrate 20 years, highlighting progress in the fight for equitable access and affordability to treatment, amplifying community power, and building resilience within communities.

The Solidarity Project aims to improve public health outcomes (incidence, prevalence, and reductions in morbidity and mortality) by improving the affordability of key patented health products for HIV, tuberculosis, viral hepatitis, cervical cancer, and any public health emergencies in 24 LMICs. The Solidarity Project, which complements other access strategies such as voluntary licenses, aims to address IP barriers in 24 LMICs, by working within the framework of national laws and international agreements such as the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) to facilitate price reductions through market entry of key generic and biosimilar products (GBPs).

Under ITPC’s global coordination of the project, technical assistance shall continue to be provided to the hubs, country partners and ITPC to support country partners work on implementation of TRIPS flexibilities and removal/mitigation of TRIPS-plus provisions.

Consultant Scope of Work and Deliverables

ITPC is seeking a Special Adviser on Patent Law and Policy to:

1. Provide advice and capacity building on patent law reform efforts aimed at improvement of access to HIV, TB, HCV and COVID-19 medicines, including by
   • In collaboration with ITPC MMA team and involved consultants/trainers facilitate creation of agenda and training materials, suggesting line-up of trainers and speakers for the IP Summit 2025, Law and Policy Reform Academy (LPRA) in 2025 and Patent Oppositions Academy for Africa (POA), outreach to potential speakers, perform role of coordinating legal trainer at the LPRA and POA;
2. Advise on issues related to introduction of TRIPS-flexibilities, operationalization of existing TRIPS flexibilities mechanisms, e.g., compulsory licensing, patent oppositions (PO), including by
   • advising on best targets for patent oppositions and on overall PO support process for Solidarity consortium partners;
   • reviewing patent opposition templates from legal perspective;
3. Provide expert support of countries’ efforts to resist inclusion of TRIPS-plus obligations into FTAs and other international agreements, national legislation, and mitigation of TRIPS-plus provisions;
4. Assist in analysis of key IP related documents (declarations, draft resolutions etc.), providing talking points for ITPC presentations and statements;
5. Participate in development and/or review/make inputs to ITPC Global draft reports/papers/templates developed on various IP and access to medicines-related topics (e.g. IP and access to medicines literacy (IPAL) curriculum for CSOs;);
6. Advice on methodology and organization of EPO and ARIPO/OAPI evergreening studies, Desk review of best practices on IP-related and other policies to support local manufacturing;
7. Technical support, contribution to development of meetings agenda and participation as a trainer or facilitator at IP-related trainings, events organized by ITPC or as requested by ITPC;
8. Provision of technical assistance to the Asia hub of the Solidarity project.

Deliverable

• As set out by requesting country and/or ITPC Access to Diagnostics and Medicines Lead, including analytical reports, assessments, legal advice, memorandums, etc.

Education & Experience Requirements

• Minimum 7-8 years relevant experience in developing toolkits and frameworks, providing legal advice, conducting legal analysis and drawing up reports, memorandums on implementation of TRIPS-flexibilities and access to medicines for nonprofit, philanthropic sector or related field is required
• Graduate degree preferred
• Advanced computer experience is required – MS Office: Word, Excel, Access, Outlook and PowerPoint, and Adobe.
• Experience and/or academic training in HIV/AIDS, public health, human rights, international development, or related field is a plus
• Experience working on intellectual property topics, knowledge of patents, patent law, law reform, drug markets