Category: Student Fellows

Mushrooms, capsules, and dropper bottle.

Psychedelics Are Cheap. Psychedelic Treatment Is Not.

Vincent Joralemon Leave a comment

By Vincent Joralemon

Psychedelics hold immense potential to address an array of conditions that are otherwise challenging to treat, but accessing these therapies can be costly, which means that potential benefits will be stratified along the lines of socioeconomic status.

This is an acute concern, because many with conditions that psychedelics may help to treat — such as post-traumatic stress disorder, postpartum depression, treatment-resistant depression, and alcohol use disorder — lack the resources to pay for effective health treatments.

Read More

United States Capitol Building - Washington, DC.

How Comparative Law Can Counter Threats to the ‘Most Successful Global Health Program in Modern History’

Joelle Boxer 2 Comments

By Joelle Boxer

PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, is under threat. Some members of Congress are withholding reauthorization support while arguing, without evidence, that PEPFAR funds abortion.

This is untrue: U.S. law prohibits PEPFAR from funding abortion. That alone should resolve the current impasse and secure the program’s reauthorization. Should bad faith opponents require further reassurance, however, they need look no further than the local legal realities of the 25 countries and 3 regions where PEPFAR operates.

Read More

Puebla, Mexico - September 28, 2020: With green scarves, members of feminist collectives demonstrate in the streets of the Historic Center of Puebla to demand the legalization of abortion.

Sex Equality in #SeptiembreVerde: Examining the Mexican Supreme Court’s Abortion Decriminalization Decision

Joelle Boxer Leave a comment

By Joelle Boxer

Earlier this month, Mexico’s Supreme Court issued a ruling decriminalizing abortion nationwide, setting a powerful example in the global trend of abortion law liberalization, including on the grounds of sex equality.

Hailed as “incredible” by reproductive justice advocates, the decision will be most impactful in the 20 Mexican states where local laws still criminalize abortion, potentially removing access barriers for more than 42 million women.

This article will explain the origins of the case, what the decision holds, and what it says about sex equality.

Read More

Five headshots of the Petrie-Flom Center student fellow cohort (2023-2024) on red background.

Petrie-Flom Welcomes 2023-2024 Student Fellows

The Petrie-Flom Center Staff Leave a comment
(Clockwise from top left: Joelle Boxer, Adithi Iyer, Vincent Joralemon, Hannah Rahim, Bobby Stroup)

We are excited to welcome a new group of Student Fellows to the Petrie-Flom Center family. These five students are a fantastic cohort of health law policy, biotechnology, and bioethics scholars who join us from Harvard Law School.

They each will undertake a year-long research project with mentorship from Center faculty and affiliates, and also will blog here at Bill of Health regularly. Keep an eye out for their bylines!

Read More

Silver Spring, MD, USA - June 25, 2022: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) and FDA logos are seen at the FDA headquarters, the White Oak Campus.

FDA Solicits Feedback on the Use of AI and Machine Learning in Drug Development

Matthew Chun Leave a comment

By Matthew Chun

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in fulfilling its task of ensuring that drugs are safe and effective, has recently turned its attention to the growing use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in drug development. On May 10, FDA published a discussion paper on this topic and requested feedback “to enhance mutual learning and to establish a dialogue with FDA stakeholders” and to “help inform the regulatory landscape in this area.” In this blog post, I will summarize the main themes of the discussion paper, highlighting areas where FDA seems particularly concerned, and detailing how interested parties can engage with the agency on these issues.

Read More

Petrie-Flom Center logo.

Petrie-Flom Student Fellowship Now Accepting Applications

The Petrie-Flom Center Staff 1 Comment

What do a MacArthur Genius award winner, several health law professors at top schools, executive directors of leading health law centers, an associate chief counsel of the FDA, and partners and associates at top health care law firms all have in common? The Petrie-Flom Center Student Fellowship!

The Petrie-Flom Center Student Fellowship is a competitive one-year program designed to support Harvard graduate students interested in pursuing independent scholarly projects related to health law policy, biotechnology, and bioethics.

Read More

Bill of Health - silhouette of COVID-19 vaccine vile held in front of company logos, cooperation and antitrust in vaccine production

Unlocking the mRNA Platform Technology: Walking the Talk with Investment Protection

Aparajita Lath Leave a comment

By Aparajita Lath

Two articles published last month in the BMJ analyze the public investment and financing of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, highlighting the extensive government funding that has supported the development of mRNA technology from 1985 to 2022.

However, rewards from these government investments are going back into the hands of pharma corporations and shareholders, with little thought given to public needs.

Together, these articles underscore the injustice of the present moment and emphasize the need to reform intellectual property protections for government-funded inventions of public health significance.

Read More