This year, LHL's annual conference united over 130 participants around a shared ambition: ensuring that access to safe, effective, and affordable medicines is recognised as a matter of justice.

Over the course of two days, 85 speakers, chairs, and rapporteurs led dynamic sessions that bridged research and advocacy. The conference fostered rich discussions, connecting academic inquiry with civic action to advance medicines justice across global and local contexts.

The conference welcomed a diverse array of stakeholders from across the pharmaceutical ecosystem, including research funders, manufacturers, public-private partnerships, insurers, regulators, government agencies, journalists, NGOs, academics, and international organisations. This diverse participation reflected a collective commitment to dialogue, collaboration, and action.

The conference was opened by Prof. Anniek de Ruijter (Director, Law for Health & Life), Prof. Peter-Paul Verbeek (Rector, UvA), and Mr. Sipko Mülder, representing the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport.

Keynotes delivered at the conference include:

• Prevention, Price and Precision: Building a Medicines Policy That Fits – Daniëlle Jansen (former Member of Dutch Parliament & former Minister of Health)

• The Role of Activism in Shaping Law and Policies that Support Access to Medicines – Ellen ’t Hoen (Director, Medicines Law & Policy)

• Medicines Justice – a Magere Brug Assailed on All Sides – Andy Gray (Co-Chair, Lancet Commission on Essential Medicines)

• Global Access to Medicines through EU Law & Policy – Katrina Perehudoff (Associate Professor, UvA Law for Health & Life)

• EMA Support to Global Health: Collaboration and Reliance in Action – Martin Harvey (Head of International Affairs, EMA)

• Ensuring Access to Medicines, Vaccines, and Other Health Products through International Cooperation – Pradeep Wagle (Chief ESCR Section, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights)

We extend heartfelt thanks to everyone who made the conference possible:

• Our Law for Health and Life team, for organising and coordinating the event

• All speakers, rapporteurs, chairs, and participants, whose insights and energy made the discussions so engaging

• Our main funder, NWO (Dutch Research Council), through Katrina Perehudoff's Veni project and our Hestia - Impulse for Refugees in Science project

• Our sponsors: University of Amsterdam Master’s in Health Law (LLM), Fonds Europa, and the Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation’s Fair Pharma Cancer Scorecard project

• The Lancet Commission on Accelerating Progress on Essential Medicines, whose ongoing work will benefit from our discussions

• The University of Amsterdam Events Office, for seamless logistical support

The conference underscored the power of bringing together research, policy, and practice to advance medicines justice.