Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria today selected Peter Sands, a former bank CEO who is involved in health projects at the World Bank and elsewhere, as its next executive director.
Days after withdrawing from consideration to be the next director of the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the UK's Peter Sands has asked to be reinstated. The actions come as the Fund's Board gathers this week to choose among the final candidates for head of the international health funding organisation based in Geneva.
The World Health Organization is consulting member states and stakeholders on the future of its mechanism to help prepare the world for the next influenza pandemic. It is particularly asking whether countries should submit not only the biological samples of their influenza viruses, but also their genetic information through the mechanism. Also in question is whether the mechanism should be extended to cover seasonal influenza. Stakeholders had different views but all questioned the absence of recognition by the WHO of a widely used database currently hosting most of the world’s influenza genetic information.
The World Intellectual Property Organization this week held an event that delved into research, markets and access for vaccines with panels that showed unusual breadth of representation for the UN IP agency. But health advocates have taken issue with the wording of a report released by WIPO at the event.
A well-represented set of experts this week held discussions on the current situation of access to vaccines, the market, the role of pharmaceutical companies, and partnerships. Vaccines were not a field much affected by patents in the past, but the situation has changed and new vaccines are now covered by intellectual property, which might constitute a barrier to access, according to speakers.
Against the growing threat of a world where bacteria can kill again because they have developed resistance to available antibiotics, and the lack of new promising options in the research pipeline, several international agencies are seeking solutions. The World Health Organization today published a set of recommendations to help stop the routine use of antibiotics to promote growth and prevent disease in healthy animals.
Hidden amongst the thousands of Facebook pages given over to holiday snaps and gossip are groups of patients who have hepatitis C, a disease that affects more than 70 million worldwide and kills around 400,000 people a year. But importantly, these groups of patients from Russia to Australia have got together to help each other import a relatively new class of drug that is able to cure most of the patients who take it.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF, Doctors Without Borders) announced today that it has secured deals for two key generic hepatitis C medicines, dropping prices dramatically.
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) this month gathered a wide range of key stakeholders to have a frank discussion about how to solve rising global resistance to existing antibiotics. While not a negotiation, stakeholders in the expert group opened up and shared perspectives, leading to some informal conclusions. Among them: more public and private investment, and a shift in the R&D system to new-style incentives, are needed.
A health advocacy group today announced that it has challenged a set of United States patents for a hepatitis C medicine. The group says drug maker Gilead Sciences has obtained unmerited patents for sofosbuvir, blocking millions of US patients from affordable treatment.