The GAiA team is currently engaged in five projects. The first two are related: Voluntary Licensing and Access to Medicine (VLAM), an initiative funded by the John C. Martin Foundation, seeks to refine and publicize the methodology of “voluntary licensing” — one among several strategies that can help alleviate the global health crisis and mitigate inequality in access to health technologies. VAMOHS, a collaboration with the Gates Foundation, facilitates the negotiation of distribution contracts that will increase the availability of crucial innovative medicines and other health technologies in low and middle-income countries.
The third project, the Southern Africa Quality Assurance Network (SAQAN), a collaboration with Mission for Essential Drugs and Supplies (a nonprofit pharmaceutical distributor, based in Kenya), is deploying a technology and an associated data-sharing network that could reduce the incidence of falsified and substandard drugs in developing countries.
The fourth project is educational. In collaboration with the World Intellectual Property Organization, Georgetown University, Hong Kong University, Emory University, and the National Law University of India, we have developed a 12-week intensive course on Patent Law and Global Public Health, which is now offered periodically by the WIPO Academy and by several universities.
Finally, Copyright Reform is an effort to provide assistance to lawmakers in developing countries, many of whom are currently rewriting their copyright statutes.