Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The Executive Board of UNITAID yesterday adopted a resolution on the use of the intellectual property flexibilities enshrined in the global trading system allowing developing countries to facilitate access to affordable medicines.
After a day spent in informal meetings to try to agree on what should be the future work of the World Intellectual Property Organization patent law committee, delegates had to admit defeat. The main point of contention, according to sources, was the request by developing countries that the committee work on the issue of patents and access to medicines, and address the recommendations of the United Nations Secretary-General’s High Level Panel on Access to Medicines. This request was met by blunt refusal by some developed countries as beyond the realm of the work of the committee.
The World Intellectual Property Organization patent law committee this week became the latest venue for the global debate over the system to provide incentives to the pharmaceutical industry to find new medicines while ensuring all patients have access to those medicines. Most developing countries want the committee to discuss the recommendations of the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines, while most developed countries disagree. The tone is rising, and the issue could come as a hurdle as countries decide the future work of the committee.
The World Intellectual Property Organization patent law committee is a unique international forum where discussions about the patent system are held. The committee meeting this week is a display of different views of developed and developing countries on how the patent system is expected to meet their needs.
The US Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a case over whether companies that make copycat versions of biologic drugs must wait six months after winning federal approval before bringing them to the market.
From extracurricular creativity to global campaigns, Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) continues in its activities to raise awareness and explore how universities can best direct their research and innovations towards promoting global access to medicines. In the next year, UAEM will extend its national and international campaigns to address the high prices of medicines, continue to gather support for a global agreement on research and development and build on the mapping alternative R&D initiatives.
The discussion on intellectual property-related barriers to access to medicines was one of the most contentious points of the 39th meeting of the UNAIDS governing board last week. After hours of negotiations, the board agreed that the organisation will keep working on the issue. But developing countries and civil society would have preferred a stronger mandate, according to representatives.
A meeting of the Board of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has concluded with a set of decisions (attached) showing that the Board went farther than just noting the UNAIDS secretariat report on intellectual property-related barriers preventing access to medicines. And the Board, after lengthy discussions, also called on UNAIDS to facilitate discussions on the high-profile report of the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel for Access to Medicines.
Veteran public health advocate Els Torreele of Belgium has been named the new executive director of the high-profile Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF, Doctors Without Borders) Access Campaign, based in Geneva.
The Board of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) this week is considering a report calling for the 11 cosponsor agencies of the programme to follow the recommendations of the UN Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines to improve policy coherence, and to produce reports on the use of intellectual property at country and regional levels, including the use of flexibilities.
The much-awaited decision of the World Trade Organization Dispute Settlement Body on Australia’s law requiring that tobacco products be sold in plain packages, challenged by four countries, has been postponed and is now expected "not before May 2017."
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