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    Priti_Krishtel

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    Priti Krishtel

    Priti Krishtel is a lawyer and advocate for patent


    reform and increased public participation in the patent Priti Krishtel
    system. She co-founded the United States-based
    nonprofit organization the Initiative for Medicines,
    Access, and Knowledge.[1]

    She is a media contributor for national and


    international news outlets, a MacArthur Fellow, a TED
    speaker, and a Presidential Leadership Scholar.

    Early life and education


    Krishtel grew up in California.[2] She obtained her
    undergraduate degree from University of California,
    Berkeley, and her Juris Doctor degree from the New
    York University School of Law.[2]

    Priti Krishtel in 2021

    Career Alma mater University of California,


    Berkeley, New York University
    Krishtel started her career in the early 2000s while Organization Initiative for Medicines, Access,
    working as a public interest lawyer in India at the and Knowledge
    height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. She saw first-hand Known for Pharmaceutical patent reform
    how patent monopolies often reduced the availability activism
    of life-saving medications in lower-income countries.
    After meeting fellow lawyer Tahir Amin at a protest
    about HIV drug prices in Bangalore, Krishtel and Amin co-founded the Initiative for Medicines, Access,
    and Knowledge to use their legal background to expose inequities in the patent system to increase access
    to affordable, life-saving medications for people around the world.[1]

    Krishtel has partnered with patient groups and humanitarian organizations, including Doctors Without
    Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières), to challenge patents by Gilead Sciences on hepatitis C treatment
    sofosbuvir, a patent application by Novartis from patenting leukemia drug Gleevec, and Abbott
    Laboratories patents on the HIV drug Kaletra. These challenges resulted in increased patient access to
    medicines and public savings for governments and health systems.[1][3]

    Media
    In 2018, Krishtel stated that public enthusiasm for intellectual property rights reform is at an all-time high
    due to concerns around the rising costs of prescription drugs.[4] In 2020 she pointed to research showing
    no correlation between high drug prices and increased pharmaceutical research and development.[5] She
    has said that many medicinal patent applications, rather than being for new medicinal formulas, are minor
    tweaks to drug administration regimes or processes.[3]

    In 2021, she called for reforms by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to ensure US pharmaceutical
    companies do not abuse the patent system to extend their market monopolies.[3] This effort was amplified
    during the COVID vaccine debate. In August 2021, she pointed out that 55% of people in developed
    countries have been vaccinated, while for people in developing countries, the number is 1%.[6] In the
    same year, she joined global health advocates in calling for equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines,
    treatments, and tests through sharing intellectual property and know-how to increase supply and access.[7]

    Krishtel has called out the danger of vaccine nationalism, or the hoarding of vaccine supply by any
    country, and warned that the prioritization of vaccines for American citizens or other high-income
    countries could be "the beginning of a new Hunger Games" where populations are pitted against each
    other to get access to treatments and vaccines if measures were not taken.[8] In 2021, she stated that
    intellectual property law reform alone would not be enough to improve access to COVID-19 vaccines and
    that technology transfer was also needed.[9]

    Responding to criticism of the technology transfer argument in which it was said that local manufacturing
    of vaccines increased safety risks, she told CBS News that such defenses of the status quo were
    patronizing and racist assumptions grounded in the false perspective that low-income countries lacked
    manufacturing capacity and a safety regulatory framework.[10]

    In an interview with Amanpour & Company on PBS regarding COVID-19 vaccine access, she noted that
    everyone should have access to vaccines. This sentiment was echoed in an op-ed she co-authored with
    Chelsea Clinton in USA Today on the need to vaccinate the world to stop the spread of further variants,
    stating, "Nobody is safe until we are all safe."[11]

    In 2021, Krishtel joined the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives at a press conference and noted
    the importance of addressing patent and other anti-competitive abuses as part of the response to lowering
    healthcare costs during a legislative effort on drug pricing. She is quoted in the New York Times editorial
    board opinion in April 2022 supporting patent reform.[12]

    Awards and recognition


    Krishtel is a TED speaker, Presidential Leadership Scholar, and an Ashoka fellow.[13] She is an Echoing
    Green Fellow and received the Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award from NYU's School of Law in
    2022. She was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2022.[14]

    References
    1. Quigley, Fran (2017-11-17). "Patent Fighters: Taking on Big Pharma" (https://sites.sph.harva
    rd.edu/hhrjournal/2017/11/patent-fighters-taking-on-big-pharma/). Harvard T.H. Chan School
    of Public Health. Retrieved 2022-01-09.
    2. "Alumna of the Month November 2009 | NYU School of Law" (https://www.law.nyu.edu/alum
    ni/almo/pastalmos/2009-10almos/pritiradhakrishnannovember). www.law.nyu.edu. Retrieved
    2022-01-09.
    3. Sinha, Gunjan. "Why Americans pay through the nose for brand-name drugs" (https://www.
    motherjones.com/politics/2021/06/patent-extensions-keep-drug-costs-high/). Mother Jones.
    Retrieved 2021-11-15.
    4. "Pharma patent owners in the US are under pressure like they have never been before |
    IAM" (https://www.iam-media.com/law-policy/us-pharma-patent-owners-under-pressure-nev
    er). www.iam-media.com. Retrieved 2021-11-17.
    5. Weaver, Jasmin. "Ten years ago, I testified before Congress about drug pricing — and it's
    only gotten worse. Here's what's wrong, and how we may be able to fix it" (https://www.busi
    nessinsider.com/drug-pricing-only-gotten-worse-whats-wrong-how-to-fix-2020-1). Business
    Insider. Retrieved 2021-11-16.
    6. "What is the COVID-19 situation in Southeast Asia?" (https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/ar
    ticles/covid-19-in-southeast-asia-current-situation-and-outlook).
    www.medicalnewstoday.com. 2021-08-11. Retrieved 2021-11-15.
    7. "What to Know About Vaccine Nationalism" (https://www.teenvogue.com/story/vaccine-natio
    nalism-what-is). Teen Vogue. 2021-05-06. Retrieved 2021-11-15.
    8. Wise, Jacqui (2020-07-03). "Remdesivir: US purchase of world stocks sparks new "hunger
    games," warn observers" (https://www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m2661). BMJ. 370: m2661.
    doi:10.1136/bmj.m2661 (https://doi.org/10.1136%2Fbmj.m2661). ISSN 1756-1833 (https://s
    earch.worldcat.org/issn/1756-1833). PMID 32620681 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3262
    0681). S2CID 220303420 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:220303420).
    9. Kaplan, Thomas; Stolberg, Sheryl Gay; Robbins, Rebecca (2021-05-05). "Taking
    'Extraordinary Measures,' Biden Backs Suspending Patents on Vaccines" (https://www.nytim
    es.com/2021/05/05/us/politics/biden-covid-vaccine-patents.html). The New York Times.
    ISSN 0362-4331 (https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0362-4331). Retrieved 2021-11-15.
    10. "Calls for drug companies to share vaccine formulas grow as global COVID crisis worsens"
    (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-vaccine-patents-drug-companies-waivers/).
    www.cbsnews.com. 5 May 2021. Retrieved 2021-11-15.
    11. Weiss, Debra Cassens (2022-10-14). "Health justice lawyer is among 25 recipients of
    MacArthur 'genius grants' " (https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/health-justice-lawyer-is
    -among-25-macarthur-genius-grant-recipients). ABA Journal. Retrieved 2023-01-06.
    12. "Opinion - Save America's Patent System" (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/16/opinion/pat
    ents-reform-drug-prices.html). The New York Times. 2022-04-16. Retrieved 2023-01-06.
    13. "Priti Krishtel | Ashoka | Everyone a Changemaker" (https://www.ashoka.org/en/fellow/priti-kr
    ishtel). www.ashoka.org. Retrieved 2022-01-09.
    14. "Who Are the 2022 MacArthur 'Genius Grant' Fellows?" (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/a
    rticles/2022-10-12/who-are-the-2022-macarthur-genius-grant-fellows?sref=CIpmV6x8).
    Bloomberg. 12 October 2022. Retrieved 13 October 2022.

    External links
    Initiative for Medicines, Access, and Knowledge official website (https://www.i-mak.org/)

    Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Priti_Krishtel&oldid=1258556424"

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