WHO Renews Delicate Effort On Pandemic Influenza Virus-Shari

In the field of Comp/Rhet, it's not that difficult to forget the very material, even physical implications of intellectual property law. Imagine a global pandemic, and the inability to administer vaccine due to patent protection. Efforts are being made to anticipate such a dilemma. Kaitlin Mara's article in the Intellectual Property Watch begins:

An avian influenza outbreak would be a public health disaster, but for the World Health Organization to adequately prepare for that risk, member states must come to a resolution on intellectual property issues related to virus and vaccine sharing.

http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=1354