Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Delinkage of research and development costs from medicines prices could "vastly expand" access to medicines by drastically dropping costs of the knowledge component of health products, innovative medicines R&D facility UNITAID says in a new report.
Re:Route, a mapping tool that lays out the research and development (R&D) landscape of innovation and financing for medicines, has been launched by the Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM). It is a one-stop place for the alternative biomedical research and development landscape.
In the fight against antimicrobial resistance, members of the European Parliament’s Environment and Public Health Committee have advocated banning collective and preventive antibiotic treatment of animals, and supported measures to stimulate research into new antibiotics, including longer data protection.
The World Health Organization today issued its strategic response framework and joint operations and research plan, which lays out a strategy until June, to investigate and respond to the medical complications linked to the spreading Zika virus.
Priorities for the pharmaceutical industry in 2016 are antimicrobial resistance and the quest for new antibiotics, the strengthening of regulatory systems to facilitate access to drugs, and work on non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes and cancer, according to the head of an international pharmaceutical industry group.
The World Intellectual Property Organization, a specialized agency of the United Nations, was unique among Geneva-based UN agencies for offering views at both recent meetings of the UN High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines held in Geneva and New York this month. Now WIPO has come under criticism from public health advocates for the views it gave.
Russian Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova said today that two “highly effective” vaccines against Ebola have been developed over the course of 15 months in Russia. The combined vaccine GamEvac-Combi was presented during a briefing, with the two scientists who developed it, who own the intellectual property rights on the vaccines in Russia.
The United Nations High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines has announced that the deadline for the submission of stakeholders’ contributions has been extended to 28 February 2016. The panel also lifted restrictions on the number of contributions authors can submit.
In an update on research and development against the Zika virus, the World Health Organization today said several companies are working on diagnostic tools, and two candidate vaccines are being considered. Discussions are ongoing with countries to encourage sharing of samples of the virus with the WHO, and leading organisations and scientific journals signed a declaration yesterday on the sharing of data for public health emergencies.
An anti-counterfeiting regulation on a unique identifier for medical products to ensure their authenticity was published today in the European Union.
The lack of preparedness to counter the effects of Zika virus follows a familiar script - a virus known since 1947, but one that has no currently available vaccine or treatments, like many neglected tropical diseases. This case could be illustrative of the wider struggle to finance investments into neglected diseases, but may tell a different story given its rarity of occurrence. It also may demonstrate how the World Health Organization is re-emerging as the global leader on response to outbreaks.
NEW YORK -- It came as a surprise to some when the United Nations Secretary General’s office announced in November the setting up of a high level panel to urgently address access to medicines and other health technologies. After all, UN agencies in Geneva, most notably the World Health Organization, have been working on these issues for years. Yesterday at the UN in New York, an event was held to explain some of the vision and urgency behind the setting up of the panel, which includes an expert committee of representatives of some 10 international organisations and others. It also includes an open online call for contributed ideas until 18 February, and two public hearings.