The Pandemic Treaty Briefing on 9 March 2023 was held in the Houses of the Oireachtas (Irish Houses of Parliament) and organized by TD (MP) Neasa Hourigan, Senator Alice-Mary Higgins, Oxfam Ireland, and Access to Medicines Ireland.  

Katrina’s key message to policy makers was that the so-called Zero Draft of the Pandemic Treaty takes important steps to govern access to medical countermeasures for pandemics. However, now is the time for Ireland and the EU to support & strengthen the proposed treaty text about intellectual property and knowledge sharing. Katrina’s research with Medicines Law & Policy, Knowledge Ecology International, and others points policy makers to seven recommendations the equitable global governance of medicines (BMJ Global Health) for pandemic prevention, preparation, and response.

Katrina’s participation was part of her ongoing research exploring the EU’s role in global access to medicines, which is supported in part by a Veni talent grant from the Netherlands Organisation of Scientific Research and the Amsterdam University Funds.