Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Microbial resistance to antibiotics has been rising and the world is now facing the serious possibility of falling back to the days when infectious diseases were hardly treatable. The World Health Organization today published a list of bacteria for which new antibiotics are most urgently needed, to help with the race against time, as the medical world is running out of treatment options.
As negotiations take place this week in Japan for a free trade agreement covering the Asia-Pacific region, a group of intellectual property scholars is calling for the public interest to be clearly considered in the copyright rules of the future agreement.
It is generally held that traditional cultural expressions reflect communities’ cultural and social background and include elements of their heritage. For indigenous and local communities, those expressions of their traditional culture are vital. Next week, World Intellectual Property Organization committee members are expected to advance on a draft treaty text to protect those expressions, and look for ways to agree on basic principles, such as what the treaty should protect, how, and who it should protect.
The lack of access to medical products has spread from being a developing country problem to a global one as prices are now too high even for developed country patients and health systems for some medicines. An event at the Graduate Institute Global Public Health Centre yesterday was an opportunity to explore these issues.
In the face of the lack of attractiveness of investing in research for new antibiotics for the pharmaceutical industry, and the general lack of funding for research and development for novel antibiotics, a new report commissioned by the German Federal Ministry of Health calls for countries to take action. In particular, the report proposes a global union for research and development, a global research fund, and a global launch reward. And access and pricing are key components of the strategy, it says.
As the World Trade Organization intellectual property committee meeting next week is expected to discuss the report of the United Nations Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines next week, a group of developing countries is convening a side event to engage in discussion with members of the panel. The report included several direct recommendations to WTO members.
Former Swiss President Ruth Dreifuss, co-chair of the United Nations Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines, participated in a Geneva event on rare diseases earlier this month. She agreed to answer Intellectual Property Watch’s Catherine Saez about the High-Level Panel report, in particular how it was received by the international community, her take on criticisms that have been voiced, and the importance that the report be discussed at the international level such as the World Health Assembly.
The role of intellectual property in innovation is expected to be considered through different lenses at the upcoming meeting of the World Trade Organization committee on intellectual property. A group of developed countries have proposed an agenda item on inclusive innovation in micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, while discussions are expected on the report of the United Nations Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines, and a side event featuring High-Level Panel members has been convened by a group of developing countries. Electronic commerce, and in particular copyright issues and electronic signatures are also on the agenda next week.
A new discovery allowing easier and swifter genome editing, considered by some as a major game changer in the field of biology, is opening doors to new technological wonders in many areas, such as medicines and agriculture. Yesterday, the United States Patent and Trademark Office issued a ruling on a case where two US university laboratories both claimed the invention of a genome editing technique. The USPTO decided that the two universities had made distinct discoveries. In Europe, patents from both universities on the technology are also challenged at the European Patent Office.
The construction of a new building to host the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and other key players in the area of global health is well under way in Geneva. The “Campus Santé” (Health Campus) is expected to open its doors at the beginning of 2018. The hosts of the building will be tenants, while the investment costs are borne by Crédit Suisse, a prominent Swiss investment bank.