A Northwestern Law School professor lectured on the nuances of the relationship between the World Health Organization and World Trade Organization at an event Friday.

Hosted by the Buffett Institute for Global Studies, the lecture presented Prof. Laura Pedraza-Fariña’s research on the subject as well as how it extends to international patent law. The event kicked off the Buffett Institute’s Faculty and Fellows Colloquium series for the year.

Pedraza-Fariña started her lecture with a background on intellectual property, focusing on the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement. Following the finalization of TRIPS in 1994, intellectual property was brought under the trade umbrella and primary authority was shifted for interpreting intellectual property to the WTO.

“Prior the the TRIPS agreement, pretty much most of intellectual property was domestic,” Pedraza-Fariña said. “Every country would issue their own patents, which is still the case. But every country could decide the level of patent protection that they wanted to give. However, there was a huge discrepancy in pharmaceutical distribution.”

Pedraza-Fariña delved into the strained relationship between the WHO and WTO, brought about by the TRIPS agreement. She talked about the power struggle and distrust that started after private documents were accidentally leaked by WHO.

Following the lecture, the floor was opened for a Q&A, during which audience members asked about black market pharmaceuticals in developing parts of the world, as well as debated the importance of essential medicine versus personalized medicines.

Weinberg junior Odette Zero came to the event because of her interest in learning about health topics and controversies, she said. Prior to the event, she said she was not well-versed in the relationship between international organizations and access to medicine.

“The joint lectures are one of the really awesome things that Northwestern has,” Zero said. “There’s really cool dialogue between undergrads and graduate students as well as faculty. Leaving this lecture, I can bring these things to my global health classes.”

The Buffett Institute’s director of research programs and strategic planning, Brian Hanson, spoke about the goal of the series, which will host events every Friday for the remainder of the academic year.

“The purpose of this colloquium is to widen the opportunity for faculty as well as visiting scholars and fellows to present their work in progress to the broad community,” he said.

Hanson said he was satisfied with the event’s turnout and proud of how the Buffett Institute brings together members of different interdisciplinary groups who aren’t often “in the same room together.”

“Talks like this … are extremely valuable to drive those conversations across disciplines because one of the core commitments of the Buffett Institute is the value of bringing people together from different backgrounds, different ideas and different disciplines to address common problems,” he said.

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