Original news and analysis on international IP policy
For Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF, or Doctors Without Borders), the 10th anniversary of the Doha Declaration on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and Public Health marks an opportunity to look forward.
The World Health Organization Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Framework Advisory Group wrapped up its first meeting a day early. Scheduled to meet 21-23 November, the 18-member group was supposed to work out details on how to carry out its mandate, according to sources.
It has been 10 years since the World Trade Organization adopted the Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health. The declaration highlighting the public health aspects of the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreed at the 2001 WTO ministerial conference in Doha, Qatar was considered a milestone in ensuring greater access to medicines for all.
The World Intellectual Property Organization has released its first report in what is expected to be a series of publications seeking to explain, clarify and contribute to policy relating to intellectual property. Its debut report, WIPO presented figures that show a growing global demand for patents, a soaring increase in licensing and royalty fees revenues, and an increase in low and middle-income economies’ share of global spending on research and development.
The eighth session of the World Intellectual Property Organization Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP) opened this week with the close of its seventh session. Committee coordinators were still gathered in negotiations as the eighth session was due to begin on 14 November, hammering out a compromise on proposed meetings on South-South cooperation among developing countries.
World Health Organization Director General Margaret Chan today made a strident pitch to WHO member governments to invest in the well-known United Nations agency, citing several unique and essential aspects of the organisation. The WHO Executive Board is meeting this week to address major reform of the WHO, in part due to a severe funding shortage but reaching into its place in the global public health spectrum.
The World Health Organization-led working group of member states addressing “substandard/spurious/falsely-labelled/falsified/counterfeit” (SSFFC) medical products has reached consensus on a new mechanism to prevent and control SSFFC medical products and associated activities. The creation of the new mechanism comes as the future of WHO involvement in an interagency anti-counterfeiting taskforce is in question.
“Neglected tropical diseases are century-old diseases and today we see new hope,” Margaret Chan, director general of the World Health Organisation, told a crowd at yesterday’s launch of a new public-private collaboration to develop medicines for the poorest countries. The project, called Re:Search, was launched at the World Intellectual Property Organization.
Enforcement of intellectual property proved to be a point of contention among World Trade Organization members at this week’s meeting of the Council on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). Meanwhile, despite debate, the Council extended the deadline for members to accept a TRIPS amendment on public health, leaving the December WTO ministerial to consider that extension plus an extension on a moratorium on so-called non-violation cases under TRIPS.
A global meeting entitled “Enabling Creativity in the Digital Environment: Copyright Documentation and Infrastructure” was held at the World Intellectual Property Organization 13-14 October. Gathering representatives of governments, business leaders, academics, and other stakeholders, the conference was organised in the framework of the Development Agenda Thematic Project on Intellectual Property and the Public Domain.
The third consultative forum of drug-purchasing mechanism UNITAID held in Geneva on 4-5 October resulted in a set of recommendations related to intellectual property rights and medicines access. The forum provided the opportunity for a wide array of global health actors, industry and country representatives to review the organisation’s progress in the last five years and to provide input on its future activities.
Years of deadlock in the Doha Round of trade negotiations at the World Trade Organization (WTO) has prompted some to question the institution’s effectiveness, and even, its relevance. But for others, the stalemate seems to be favourable for new ideas and new ways to think about global trade.