Original news and analysis on international IP policy
An event on 17 July at the United Nations in New York will address the "UN Secretary General's High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines: Advancing Health-Related SDGs through Policy Coherence."
A new project that stimulates the development of affordable and effective drug regimens to treat tuberculosis (TB) is catching notice in policy circles.
The main winners of innovation are technologies that enable market application, with gene editing and artificial intelligence as two examples, Francis Gurry, director general of the World Intellectual Property Organization, told a panel discussion last week. Thomas Cueni, director general of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA), said at the same event that everybody benefits from innovation.
Access to affordable and quality medicines for all is one of the major commitments of the World Health Organization, and its new medicines and health products strategic framework for the next 15 years calls for new research and development (R&D) models, including delinkage of the R&D costs from the price of products, and fair pricing.
Tuberculosis is still a deadly killer, and a new report by two humanitarian organisations raises alarm on poor progress on the disease diagnosis and treatment. The report calls for governments to increase efforts to fight the disease, and for the G20 countries to mobilise funds to help, in particular to boost research and development for new treatments. Separately, the World Health Organization issued a call for new treatments to fight antibiotic resistant gonorrhoea.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus began his first week as director-general of the UN World Health Organization by addressing the WHO staff with his vision for the organisation and the world. Top of the list? Humanity.
An African medicines agency, the continent’s first super-regulator, could be approved as soon as next year.
Marie-Paule Kieny, fresh out of the World Health Organization, where she held the position of assistant director general for Health Systems and Innovation, will be the new chair of the Medicines Patent Pool, as of 1 September.
NAIROBI, Kenya - A generic version of dolutegravir (DTG), the drug of choice for the last two years for people living with HIV in high-income countries, is now available in Africa. On 28 June, the government of Kenya and drug pricing and innovation mechanism Unitaid unveiled the new first-line drug in an effort to accelerate access to better antiretroviral (ARV) drugs for her people living with HIV. It becomes the first country in Africa to introduce the generic version of drug.
Open access is “part of the DNA” of international intergovernmental organisations, Charlotte Beauchamp, head of editorial and design at the World Intellectual Property Organization, said during a workshop last week. Representatives of different international organisations described during the workshop the increasing use of an open access policy by their organisations.