Original news and analysis on international IP policy
International experts convened by the World Health Organization this week on the Zika virus said vaccine development is a priority for the future but the most pressing need is to get diagnostic and prevention tools. Over 60 groups are hard at work on experimental products, according to the WHO, while a system of incentives to share virus samples is being considered.
NEW DELHI -- Are patient groups, health activists and manufacturers of low-cost generic drugs always on the same page? Do India’s generic companies think alike? The short answer: not necessarily, though their interests have overlapped on many occasions.
The United Nations Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines is holding a global dialogue this month, attended by governments, civil society, industry and academia, to discuss potential solutions to promote innovation and at the same time increase access to medicines. The first public dialogue session is this week, on 10 March in London.
Discussions on the worth of intellectual property for innovation and development have been a recurring agenda item during recent meetings of the World Trade Organization committee on intellectual property. This week, education and how it can raise awareness of IP was discussed with WTO members presenting their national experiences, and some developing countries warning against colluding IP and innovation.
The World Health Organization has announced it will hold a closed-door, three-day consultation with key stakeholders next week in Geneva to discuss the current status of clinical research into the Zika virus.
Whether laws enforcing transparency on costs would help curb extortionate drug prices in today’s world is hardly predictable now that pharma companies and their allies are lobbying governments to scupper any rules that would require them to disclose the real R&D costs and profits of their medicines and the rationale for charging what they do, writes Daniele Dionisio.
BRUSSELS -- Patents applications are on the rise in Europe the European Patent Office President Benoît Battistelli said today, with half of the applications coming from European inventors. The United States led followed by Germany, and Japan, and China showing a strong growth. The EPO president also announced the signature of an agreement with one trade union against a background of social unrest in the organisation.
Intense debate, reignited by a 2012 International Telecommunication Union roundtable on rampant patent litigation and the “innovation-stifling” use of intellectual property, together with the growing lack of standards bodies' patent policies, prompted the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE) last year to revisit parts of its patent policy that had been causing some concerns, Managing Director Konstantinos Karachalios said at a 17 February Oxfirst webinar.
The changes aim to clear up some ambiguities. Perhaps predictably, however, some pushback has arisen among industries affected by the change.
KAMPALA, Uganda -- An Ebola vaccine trial is underway in Uganda, as the global search for an effective vaccine continues. The vaccine candidate was co-developed by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH), and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), a United Kingdom-based pharmaceutical company.
NAIROBI, Kenya -- As the budding East African pharmaceutical industry shows clear gains , experts at a pharmaceutical summit in Kenya underlined the sector as key to tackling challenges related to access to essential medicines in the region.