Tahir Amin (born March 18, 1972) is a British lawyer for intellectual property and advocate for medicines access.^[1][2][3] He is a co-founder of the United States-based non-profit organization the Initiative for Medicines, Access and Knowledge (I-MAK).^[4][5]

Education

Raised in Doncaster, England, Amin received a bachelor of law from the University of Westminster in 1993, followed by a diploma of legal practice from the same institute in 1995.^[6]

Career

Amin began his career in 1995 and worked for law firms Linklaters and Field Fisher Waterhouse and also served in-house for multinational companies, including Levi Strauss and Marks & Spencer^[6]

Amin met a fellow lawyer and health justice advocate, Krishtel, at a protest about HIV drug prices in Bangalore, India. In 2006, Amin and Krishtel co-founded the Initiative for Medicines, Access, and Knowledge to utilize their legal backgrounds to expose inequities in the patent system in order to increase access to affordable medications.^{[5][7][1][8][9]} I-MAK is a global 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in the United States advocating in the public interest for affordable access to medicines and a medicines system that is inclusive of patients and the public.^{[10][11][12][3][6]} Later in July 2023, I-MAK’s board of directors named Amin as CEO and Krishtel as board bember Emeritus.^[13][14]

Media

Since establishing I-MAK, Amin has led research and analysis of the U.S. patent system’s impact on the cost of prescription drugs that have been cited by law firms, media outlets, authors, the United States House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, and the U.S. members of Congress.^[4][10]

He has conducted patent landscape reports and served as an intellectual property advisor and consultant for organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), UNITAID, GAVI, the Global Vaccine Alliance, Clinton Health Access Initiative, the European Patent Office, and the World Intellectual Property Organization.^[4][15]

In October 2018, Amin testified before the FTC in a hearing examining the pharmaceutical industry's perspective on innovation and IP policy.^[16] He stated before the U.S. Congressional House Committee on Oversight and Accountability in hearings on Unsustainable Drug Pricing and the role of intellectual property in rising prescription drug costs in the US in May 2021. In January 2023, Amin appeared before officials at the United States Patent and Trademark Office and the Food and Drug Administration and reported on how pharmaceutical companies use the FDA’s Investigational New Drug (IND) mechanism to extend patent protection. He testified in the United States International Trade Commission’s hearing investigating the need for a TRIPS waiver on COVID-19 Diagnostics and Therapeutics in March 2023.^{[10][17][14][18]}

Selected publications

• Padmanabhan, S., Amin, T., Sampat, B. et al. Intellectual property, technology transfer and manufacture of low-cost HPV vaccines in India. Nat Biotechnol 28, 671–678 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0710-671
• Amin T, Kesselheim AS. A Global Intellectual Property Waiver is Still Needed to Address the Inequities of COVID-19 and Future Pandemic Preparedness. INQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing. 2022;59. doi:10.1177/00469580221124821
• •Bhaven N. Sampat et al.,Challenges to India's Pharmaceutical Patent Laws.Science337,414-415(2012).DOI:10.1126/science.1224892
• Bhaven N. Sampat, Tahir Amin; How Do Public Health Safeguards in Indian Patent Law Affect Pharmaceutical Patenting in Practice?. J Health Polit Policy Law 1 August 2013; 38 (4): 735–755. doi: doi.org/10.1215/03616878-2208594
• Subhashini Chandrasekharan, Tahir Amin, Joyce Kim, et.al, Intellectual property rights and challenges for development of affordable human papillomavirus, rotavirus and pneumococcal vaccines: Patent landscaping and perspectives of developing country vaccine manufacturers, Vaccine, Volume 33, Issue 46, 2015, Pages 6366-6370, ISSN 0264-410X, doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2015.08.063.

References