Original news and analysis on international IP policy
An international coalition of consumer groups has issued a resolution calling into question global enforcement policy and offering core principles for policymakers to consider in setting new enforcement standards.
The World Customs Organization this week will try to reach agreement on a softened replacement group against counterfeiting and piracy that may defuse concerns of overreaching by customs officials. It also will consider a proposal to add an explicit focus on public health and safety to its enforcement activities.
Nearly two billion people lack access to the medical care they need, and in the developing world those who do manage to have access are overwhelmingly paying out-of-pocket, often triggering a fall into poverty. The monopoly-making power of patents to drive the cost of medicines beyond affordability is a significant contributor to this disturbing trend, says a report of the United Nations rapporteur on the right to health presented at last week’s Human Rights Council.
Major public health funders have alighted upon an industry-favoured approach of guaranteeing certain prices to industry to make vaccines available to least-developed country markets.
BRUSSELS - India’s status as a top world supplier of generic medicines could be threatened by a free trade agreement its government is negotiating with the European Union, a new study has concluded. Separately, the World Customs Organization has abandoned its intellectual property rights enforcement group, replacing it with a non-policymaking information committee.
Seizures of legal generic drugs was the focus of heated discussion Monday at the World Trade Organization Council on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), raising questions about the implementation of enforcement measures in the European Union.
Health advocates have raised alarm over reports that several million pills of generic medicine were held up in Frankfurt airport in May despite being destined for a different port. And new information has come to light indicating Dutch seizures were more numerous than originally thought. These developments have prompted outcry and the assertion that a European-wide law on customs and intellectual property is problematic.
Draft rules on intellectual property rights in publicly financed research are stirring significant debate in South Africa between those who say the rules may stifle innovation, breach WHO commitments and be unconstitutional, and others who say concerns are overblown and the measures are needed to boost the country's economy.
Counterfeit medicines were left off this year’s truncated World Health Assembly agenda but still managed to have an impact. The contentious, intellectual property-related issue arose during a discussion on the World Health Organization’s future plans, as several nations objected to a budget line referencing a programme to combat counterfeit drugs.
Responsibility to take forward a still in-progress framework to cope with global influenza pandemics is now in the hands of the World Health Organization Director General Margaret Chan, member states agreed in a meeting Thursday. This was approved by the full World Health Assembly on Friday.