Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Three United Nations agencies have joined together to explain to their member countries the little-understood but hard-won flexibilities to applying stiff international intellectual property rules. The focus of the new policy brief is on improving access to HIV treatment, and it offers a series of actions for governments and international organisations.
In a significant development for ongoing copyright negotiations at the World Intellectual Property Organization, the World Blind Union has distanced itself from initiatives it sees as distractions from a primary goal at the international level: To get agreement on a treaty promoting better access to reading material for visually impaired readers.
The newly created Medicines Patent Pool promises to increase access to HIV/AIDS medications in developing markets. Based in Geneva, Switzerland, the pool operates a scheme in which pharmaceutical patent holders voluntarily licence their drugs to generic manufacturers who then produce more affordable versions for patients in poorer countries
The annual report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter, to the sixteenth session of the UN Human Rights Council yesterday is unequivocal. There must be a global agricultural shift toward more productive, environmentally friendly, sustainable modes of production, using natural resources to remediate world hunger, away from industrialised agriculture. In short, the world needs a shift to agroecology.
The Canadian Parliament is on the verge of amending the nation’s patent regime to make it easier for generic drug companies to provide low-cost HIV medications for developing countries.
Recent events in the Arab region have brought the issue of access to the internet and social platforms sharply into the spotlight as governments have tried to block or limit internet access and cut millions of people from communication. A United States-hosted panel discussion in Geneva yesterday brought together representatives of Google, Facebook, and Access, a civil society group defending digital freedom.
After three days of intense negotiations on the role of the World Health Organization in the fight against low standard or falsified medicines, delegates provided recommendations for the UN agency. A subject of dissent was the relationship between the WHO and its taskforce against counterfeit medicines, with some countries calling for a suspension of the taskforce’s work, though in the end no consensus was found.
The role of the World Health Organization in the safety, quality and efficacy of medical products is under scrutiny this week by member states and stakeholders. In particular, the focus is on the WHO’s role in the prevention and control of medical products of compromised quality, the organisation’s relationship with the international taskforce against counterfeit products, and the taskforce’s alleged focus on the protection of intellectual property rights rather than on public health issues. In several documents, the WHO tries to explain this fragile role.
Having successfully advanced discussions toward treaties on the protection of folklore and traditional knowledge, country experts this week are meeting at the World Intellectual Property Organization to discuss the protection of genetic resources. But this time, it might prove trickier.
Experts gathered at the World Intellectual Property Organization to produce a negotiating document on traditional knowledge produced a cleaner text yesterday.
Patents and public health are sometimes seen as a mismatch, but three prominent international organisations today stepped up their collaboration on ways to facilitate access to medicines by making a better use of the patent system. Effective, reliable and transparent information on patents is necessary to help decision-makers take the best public health approaches for global health coverage, panellists said.
A recent decision issued by Advocacia-Geral da União (Advocacy-General of the Union) restricts the role performed by Anvisa - the National Agency for Health Surveillance - in examining pharmaceutical patent applications. This may represent a huge setback for commitments made by Brazilian government related to the protection of public health, writes Felipe Carvalho.