Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The World Health Organization on Friday issued a statement on a high-profile debate over Dutch customs authorities’ delays of shipments of legitimate generic pharmaceuticals passing through the European country on their way to patients in developing countries. The goods were apparently believed to be counterfeit medicines.
Health advocates on Friday escalated their alarm over recent seizures by the Dutch government of shipments of legitimate generic pharmaceuticals passing through Europe on their way to developing countries. The European Commission has defended its actions as permissible under its own and international rules, but is being asked to look more carefully at those rules.
The World Health Organization is soliciting new ideas for funding sources to stimulate research and development on diseases predominantly afflicting developing countries, with some in developed countries. The web-based public hearing, being held online from 7 March to 15 April, will contribute to an intergovernmental mandate to come up with ways to address the shortage of research in this areas.
Developing nations led by Brazil and India, along with public health providers and advocates, this week continue to press strong concern over seizures of legitimate shipments of generic pharmaceuticals destined for poor patients in the developing world. Raising the issue at the World Trade Organization again, they say new research into numerous shipments of legitimate drugs delayed by authorities in the Netherlands have elevated doubts and may mean potentially thousands of patients put at risk.
That there will be a future for the international Internet Governance Forum seems likely, though the form its future incarnation will take is not. Delegates to an open consultation on internet governance this week began to sort out some base modalities on how to evaluate the progress of the United Nations-led discussion venue, as a deadline approaches to decide whether and how the group will continue.
The number and intensity of debates over the role of intellectual property rights in public health is set to increase in 2009.
New leadership and new mandates for key intergovernmental organisations implemented last year have created opportunity for change. And while old debates over the balance between IP rights and access to health products are not going away, this year will see more exploration at the intergovernmental level of different systems to stimulate innovation.
布鲁塞尔 - 全球公共卫生活跃分子声称，欧盟执意要在一系列自由贸易协议中添加有关医药专利的强硬规定将会妨害发展中国家获得医药。
ابروكسل- إن الجهود التي يبذلها الاتحاد الأوروبي لإدراج أحكام حول براءات المستحضرات الصيدلانية في سلسلة من اتفاقات التجارة الحرة التي يتفاوض حولها قد تشكل تهديدا على إمكانية الحصول على الأدوية في البلدان النامية، على حد قول الناشطين في مجال الصحة العامة على الصعيد العالمي.
BRUXELLES - Selon certains activistes de la santé publique mondiale, les efforts de l’Union européenne (UE) pour intégrer des dispositions sur les brevets pharmaceutiques dans un certain nombre d’accords de libre échange en cours de négociation pourraient mettre en péril l’accès aux médicaments dans les pays en développement.
Leading international public health advocates have sent letters to the heads of the World Health Organization and World Trade Organization calling on them to act to prevent possible circumvention of international trade rules for intellectual property rights relating to shipments of legal generic drugs bound for developing countries.