26 February 2026
Access to medicines is not charity — it is a human right.
Katrina discussed her proposal during the Expert Meeting on Expensive Medicines organised by Assoc. Prof. André den Exter and Prof. Joaquin Cayón (IDIVAL-University of Cantabria) at Erasmus University Rotterdam and at the EUHealthGov webinar launching the Special Issue on ‘Public Health, Markets, and Law’ in the Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics'. Katrina’s research is published in that special issue.
Under international and EU law, EU Member States have binding obligations to organise fair and non-discriminatory pharmaceutical systems. Meanwhile, the EU institutions have related responsibilities to prevent and mitigate disability through access to health services, including through information sharing and technology transfer for human health, both within and beyond Europe’s borders.
Katrina's article explores the specific medicine needs of people with disabilities in low- and middle-income countries, focusing on the European Union’s extraterritorial legal obligations under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Her proposal for a legal framework based on this Convention is applied to two case studies: the EU’s internal joint COVID-19 vaccine procurement strategy and its external BioNTainer initiative for vaccine production in Africa under Team Europe.