Original news and analysis on international IP policy
A newly issued report provides the “first ever” picture of global investment in Ebola research and development. The report found that investment in Ebola might have come at the expense of other funding to develop drugs, vaccines and diagnostics for other neglected diseases. The report also found that public funding on research and development for neglected diseases was at its lowest in years.
Colombia has a decision to make. A full year has passed from the November 24, 2014 request by iFarma, Misión Salud and CIMUN for a declaration of the public interest regarding the cancer drug imatinib (marketed by Novartis as Gleevec/Glivec), the first step on the path toward a compulsory license in Colombia. Thus far, Colombia’s Ministry of Health and Social Protection has failed to act one way or another, leaving patients in limbo and the government at the mercy of a Swiss pharmaceutical giant that reported revenue of over $57.9 Billion USD in 2013, write James Love and Andrew S. Goldman.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- Having led the successful collaborative testing of an Ebola-vaccine in record time, John-Arne Røttingen of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health now wants to expand the idea to a permanent global financing facility for research and development. And he is optimistic.
The Medicines Patent Pool has signed a collaborative agreement with the University of Liverpool to develop HIV nanomedicines.
The Medicines Patent Pool announced today that it signed a first licence for a hepatitis C drug with Bristol-Myers Squibb. The agreement allows manufacturing of daclatasvir, royalty-free in 112 low-and middle-income countries.
This week the World Health Organization member state mechanism on falsified medicines is meeting in Geneva with a long agenda. In particular, the meeting is expected to consider a process for the mechanism review, the participation of the WHO in a global committee on the quality of health products, and several proposals including tracking systems and awareness campaigns.
Saying she could speak more freely outside of the World Health Organization, WHO Director General Margaret Chan today told a gathering of think tank representatives at the Graduate Institute of Geneva that intellectual property rights may be unfairly driving up drug prices and that industry lobbying may be interfering with governments' efforts to take action on behalf of their citizens' public health.
A recent workshop on patentability criteria illustrated how countries are using the policy space provided by international trade rules to calibrate their patent law. In particular, incremental innovation remains a trying issue for national legislators, speakers said.
The Medicines Patent Pool has announced the expansion of its mandate to cover hepatitis C and tuberculosis treatment. The MPP was previously concentrating only on HIV medicines.
Last week's decision by a World Trade Organization committee to allow least-developed countries to not apply global IP rules for pharmaceuticals for 17 more years made WTO members accountable to humanity, the coordinator of the LDC Group has said. Pharmaceuticals are different from all other forms of IP, he said.