Amir Attaran

Dr. Amir Attaran is a lawyer who writes on public health and global development issues. He is a member of Africa Fighting Malaria's advisory board, a group funded in part by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).

A 2005 biographical note states that he is Associate Professor of Law and Population Health, and the holder of the Canada Research Chair in Law, Population Health and Global Development Policy at the University of Ottawa, Canada. It also states that prior to this he was an adjunct lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard University, publishing research as part of the Center for International Development and the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. "He has also advised and collaborated with numerous NGOs, UN agencies, governments, and corporations on aspects of international development, primarily in the area of public health," the biographical note states.

Attaran's Human Rights Advocacy
Attaran has backed international prosecutions to end the crimes against humanity perpetuated by the regime in Zimbabwe. In 2006 he criticized Canada's military for failing to protect the rights of detainees they arrested during their mission in Afghanistan and that prisoners had been transferred to the custody of Afghan security officials known by the Canadian government to be involved in torture.

Affiliations

 * 1998-99: Director, Malaria Project, Center for Study of Responsive Law, Washington D.C.
 * 1999: Consultant, Medecins Sans Frontieres
 * 1998-2000: Staff Lawyer, Sierra Legal Defence Fund, Vancounver, Canada;
 * 2000-03: Research Fellow and Adjunct Lecturer, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University;
 * 2003 - 2005: Lecturer, School of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University.
 * 2003: Fellow at Africa Fighting Malaria Foundation;
 * 2003-2005: Associate Fellow of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, London;

Book

 * Dr Amir Attaran (ed) & Professor Brigitte Granville (ed), Delivering Essential Medicines: The Way Forward, Chatham House, November 2004 ISBN: 1 86203 149 5 (paperback) 1 86203 150 9 (hardback)

Biographical and Research Interests Notes

 * Royal Institute of International Affairs, Dr Amir Attaran, biography, web archive from April 2005.
 * "Amir Attaran: Canada Research Chair in Law, Population Health, and Global Development Policy", Canada Research, accessed June 2007.

Articles By Attaran

 * P. Champ and A. Attaran, "Patent Rights and Local Working under the WTO TRIPS Agreement: An Analysis of the U.S.-Brazil patent dispute?" Yale International Law Journal, Volume 365, Number 27, 2002.
 * M. Friedman, H. den Besten, A. Attaran, "Out-licensing: a practical approach to improving access to medicines in poor countries?", The Lancet, Volume 361,  2003, pp. 341-344.
 * Amir Attaran, "Malaria, The Terrorists Friend", New York Times, September 25, 2003.
 * V. Narasimhan and A. Attaran, Roll Back, Malaria? The scarcity of international aid for malaria control? The Malaria Journal 2:8, 2003.
 * A. Attaran, "Assessing and answering paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration: the case for greater flexibility and a non-justiciability solution?", Emory International Law Review, 2003.
 * Amir Attaran, Karen I Barnes, Christopher Curtis, Umberto d’Alessandro, Caterina I Fanello, Mary R Galinski,Gilbert Kokwaro, Sornchai Looareesuwan, Michael Makanga, Theonest K Mutabingwa, Ambrose Talisuna, Jean François Trape, William M Watkins, "WHO, the Global Fund, and medical malpractice in malaria treatment", The Lancet, Volume 363, January 17, 2004.
 * Amir Attaran, "Where did it all go wrong?", Nature, Volume 430, August 19, 2004.
 * Amir Attaran and Roger Bate, "India's Deadly Lies", Tech Central Station, February 15, 2005.
 * Amir Attaran and Roger Bate, "Sick at the World Bank", The Examiner, May 19, 2005.
 * Amir Attaran, "Necessary Measures", New York Times, September 13, 2005.
 * Amir Attaran, "An immeasurable crisis? A criticism of the Millennium Development Goals and why they cannot be measured", PLoS Medicine, September 13, 2005.

Congressional Testimony

 * May 12, 2005: Amir Attaran and Roger Bate to US Senate Hearing on USAID’s malaria control operations

Conference Presentations

 * Dr Amir Attaran, Centre for International Development, Harvard University, Sir Richard Sykes DSc FRS, Chairman, GlaxoSmithKline plc, Dr Beatrice Wabudeya, Minister of State for Health, Uganda, The Pharmaceutical Industry: Squaring the Circle. Shareholder Value and Corporate Social Responsibility,Conference Proceedings, March 14, 2002. (Proceedings only available for purchase £295 and audio of conference only available to members).
 * American Enterprise Institute (Washington DC), The Real Obstacles to treating Malaria, AIDS and TB in Developing Countries, 12 May 2004. Presentations from Prof. Don Roberts, Prof. Amir Attaran, Richard Tren & Roger Bate.
 * National Academies of Science Conference on DDT, Washington DC, Presentations by both Prof. Don Roberts & Prof. Amir Attaran, 21 July 2004
 * Richard Tren and Amir Attaran, World Health Organization AFRO Southern Africa Malaria Control Conference, Gaborone, Botswana, 22 July 2004

General Articles

 * Alvin Powell, "Effect of patents pending: Attaran: Drug patents not crucial in AIDS fight", Harvard University Gazette, October 18, 2001.
 * Patent Politics, TAGline, Volume 8, Issue 9, November 2001.
 * AIDS Activists Laud Pharmacia Plan for Generic Manufacturing", Dow Jones International: January 24, 2003.
 * Consumer Project on Technology, Big Pharma's favorite academics and opinion makers, accessed February 2004.
 * Steve Sternberg,, "The troubling fight against old killer", USA Today, April 29, 2004.
 * Roger Bate, "What Patent Problem?: Dr. Amir Attaran asks — and answers — the question", National Review Online, May 17, 2004.
 * A Critique of Amir Attaran's claims about patents and medicine access,, ,.
 * John W. McArthur, Jeffrey D. Sachs, Guido Schmidt-Traub1, "Response to Amir Attaran", PLoS Medicine, November 29, 2005.
 * Tim Lambert, "Lancet study is wrong", Deltoid, May 17, 2006.
 * Tim Lambert, "Philip Musgrove rebuts Attaran", Deltoid, May 22, 2006.
 * Tim Lambert, "Attaran at it again", Deltoid, May 27, 2006. (This post also includes several responses from Attaran).
 * Erika Check, "Profile: Amir Attaran" Nature Medicine, July 27, 2006.