China Revises Law to Facilitate Compulsory Licenses for Generic Medicines
China has revised its legal framework to promote compulsory licenses for patented medicines to meet public health needs. The government is considering issuing a compulsory license for tenofovir, a...
View ArticleThai Civil Society Groups Oppose Patent Application for HIV/AIDS Treatment
A coalition of Thai civil society groups has written a letter opposing Gilead’s patents for the fixed-dose combination of AVR tenofovir and emtricitaine (TDF+FTC, sold under the brand name Truvada), an...
View ArticleEnding the HIV/AIDS Epidemic Act of 2012 Introduced, Aims to Protect Flexible...
Last night, Congresswoman Barbara Lee introduced the Ending the HIV/AIDS Epidemic Act of 2012 (HR 6138). One section of the bill aims at protecting the use of flexible intellectual property policies...
View ArticleTreating People Right Means Taking the IP Yoke Off Our Back: A 10 Point Plan...
[Reposted from treatpeopleright.org] “Treating people right” means many things, but one of the things it means is that people living with and at risk of HIV/AIDS must have immediate and affordable...
View ArticleIntellectual Property Policy Incoherence at the African Union Threatens...
Proposed Pan-African IP Organization a Terrible Idea In a stunning development, following an obscure vote of Heads of State at the Africa Union in 2007 (Assembly Council/AU/Dec. 138(VIII)), the AU...
View ArticleAdvocates Ask De Gucht to Leave Data Exclusivity Out of Trade Agreement with...
Health advocates have asked the EU not to include data exclusivity requirements in the “Deeply Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement” that is being negotiated between the EU and Moldova. Article 9 of the...
View ArticleMedicines Patent Pool, ViiV Healthcare Collaborate to Treat Paediatric HIV
[MPP press release, (CC-BY-NC-ND)] The Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) today announces the launch of a new collaboration with ViiV Healthcare – a joint venture of GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, and Shionogi –...
View ArticleAnalysis: India’s Supreme Court Upholds Strict Patent Standards and Patients’...
In a stunning victory for poor patients throughout the developing world, the Indian Supreme Court today ruled against a Novartis challenge of a denial of a patent on its cancer medicine Glivec.[1] The...
View ArticleCambodian People’s Statement on the EU-India Free Trade Agreement on Generic...
We have been informed about the repeated attempt of the EU to include Intellectual Property Rights provisions that are very likely to undermine the stable supply of affordable life-saving medicines to...
View ArticleAttack on affordable medicines continues in EU-India trade negotiations
Health groups rally in Delhi as protests spread across the developing world. [Posted on the Don't Trade Our Lives Away blog, 10 April, 2013, New Delhi] Thousands of people living with HIV, cancer...
View ArticleSouth Africa’s Department of Trade and Industry Reneges on IP Policy Commitments
[Posted on FixthePatentLaws.org (Link)] On 24 April 2013, Minister of Trade and Industry Rob Davies stated that South Africa’s new intellectual property (IP) policy would not be released for public...
View ArticleUS Government Special 301 “Watchlist” and Developing Country Use of...
Special 301 is an annual report by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) which places countries on a “watch list” if USTR would like to see greater changes in their intellectual property...
View ArticleIncoming WTO Director General Urged to Make Access to Medicines a Priority
Least-developed countries fighting for TRIPS exemption extension [MSF Press Release] On the appointment of Roberto Azevedo as Director General of the World Trade Organization, international medical...
View ArticleTrans Pacific Partnership Negotiations and the Controversial Issue of...
Trade negotiators are meeting in Lima, Peru this week for the seventeenth round of talks on the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). The negotiations are reaching the final stages as an October...
View ArticleSouth to Introduce Resolution on Access to Medicines
(Reposted with permission from the TWN Info Service) Developing countries are set to introduce a resolution on access to medicines at the current session of the United Nations Human Rights Council. The...
View ArticleRoche relinquishes Trastuzumab patent in India: Campaign urges fast track...
KALYANI MENON-SEN Campaign for Affordable Trastuzumab +91-9910306382 Swiss pharma major Roche has just announced that it is relinquishing the patent for its breast-cancer drug Trastuzumab (Herceptin)...
View ArticleWith One Exception Current Trade Agreements Do Not Appear to Include Biologic...
The U.S., acting on behalf of the U.S. biologics industries, will soon be trying to convince parties to the TPP that they should adopt extended data exclusivity for biologics (at least 12 years) as...
View ArticleBrazilian Patent Law Report
The Brazilian Center for Strategic Studies and Debates has just released the English version of its major report – Brazil’s Patent Reform: Innovation Towards National Competitiveness. This 363-page...
View ArticleSkepticism Rises that TPP Will Conclude by End of the Year; Little Progress...
Today, Prime Ministers meeting in Bali in advance of this week’s APEC meeting expressed skepticism that negotiators will finalize a TPP deal by the end of the year. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak...
View ArticleBrazilian Officials to Launch Report Recommending the Incorporation of TRIPS...
Today at 2pm, an event will be held at the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies to launch Brazilian Patent Reform: Innovation Towards Competitiveness. This report was developed through a long consultative...
View ArticleMedicines Patent Pool and Bristol-Myers Squibb Sign Agreement to Further...
[MPP Press release, Link (CC-NC-ND)] The Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) and biopharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb have signed a licensing agreement to increase access to a key HIV medicine,...
View ArticleThe French Government Must Issue a Compulsory License for Sofosbuvir & Seek...
[ACT-UP Basel Press Release, Link] Act Up-Basel called the French government to learn from the current situation regarding access to new direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) molecules used in the treatment...
View ArticleTime to Act: Ensure Access to Affordable Biotherapeutic Products
Civil Society Statement for Pre-ICDRA and ICDRA We, the undersigned organizations, bring to the attention of Drug Regulatory Authorities, WHO, Member States and other participants of Pre and...
View ArticleGilead’s Proposed Hepatitis C Medicines License: How Badly Will it Miss the...
Gilead has been busy building positive publicity for its proposed license on two new direct-acting oral antivirals used to treat infections with the hepatitis C virus (HCV), sofosbuvir (Sovaldi®) and...
View ArticleUN Agencies’ Report on Pacific Trade & Human Rights: Excerpt on State...
The following is an excerpt from Pacific Trade & Human Rights, a joint report by the World Health Organization, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the UN Development Programme. The lead...
View ArticleSolutions to Improve Access to Medicines and Biomedical Innovation Through EU...
[Médecins Sans Frontières Access Campaign] The European Union’s (EU) free trade and research and development (R&D) policies promote excessive intellectual property (IP) protection. This approach...
View ArticleHepatitis C Medicines: Technology and Market Landscape
[Mike Isbell, Renée Ridzon, and Karin Timmermans, UNITAID/WHO , Link ] Executive summary: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major global health problem. With 80−150 million people worldwide chronically...
View ArticlePreliminary Analysis of Biologics Exclusivity in the Leaked Trans Pacific...
Cross posted from the Third World Network page on IP and Access to Medicines. SUMMARY: Biologics at monopoly prices are extremely expensive and are a growing share of medicines, including life-saving...
View ArticleCandidates Clinton and Sanders on Intellectual Property and Access to...
The Pennsylvania Fair Trade Coalition (PFTC) has released questionnaires completed by candidates Sanders and Clinton on their views on the Trans Pacific Partnership. The questionnaires consist of ten...
View ArticleAccess To Medicines Resolution Adopted By UN Human Rights Council
[Catherine Saez, IP Watch, Link (CC-BY-NC-SA)] A resolution on access to medicines proposed by a number of developing countries was adopted today by the United Nations Human Rights Council, as well as...
View ArticleMSF Calls for Affordable Pneumonia Vaccines Ahead of Pfizer’s Patent Hearing...
[MSF Press Release, Link] Tomorrow Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) will defend the rights of millions of children around the world to be protected against pneumonia at a...
View ArticleA Prescription for Excessive Drug Pricing: Leveraging Government Patent Use...
Authors: Hannah Brennan, Amy Kapczynski, Christine H. Monahan, and Zain Rizvi Abstract: High drug prices are creating serious health and fiscal problems in the United States today. This reality is...
View ArticlePatent Barriers to Medicine Access in South Africa: A Case for Patent Law Reform
Catherine Tomlinson, Yuan Qiong Hu, Julia Hill and Claire Waterhouse Fix the Patent Laws Campaign Full Text (PDF) Executive Summary: In this report, we present nine case studies that demonstrate how...
View ArticleIndian Generic Firms Capturing Larger Share of U.S. Drug Imports
India is often called the “pharmacy of the developing world” because its pharmaceutical firms provide a large portion of the generic drugs consumed in the South. However, Northern countries are...
View ArticleAARP, AFL-CIO, Oxfam, Consumers Union & MSF Letter to President Obama, re:...
Click here for a printable PDF Dear President Obama: As organizations that represent millions of Americans, including consumers, retirees, and patients, and that provide medical care globally, we are...
View ArticleAustralia Should Reject U.S. Push for Even Longer TPP Medicine Monopolies
[AFTINet Press Release, Link] “The Australian government should reject the push from US Republican Congress members to increase biologic medicine monopolies by seven years, even more than the extra...
View ArticleMitigating the Regulatory Constraints Imposed by Intellectual Property Rules...
Carlos Correa South Centre, February 2017 Research Paper #74 IP provisions in FTAs may have implications on a wide range of public policy areas. A vast academic literature has addressed the...
View ArticleOpen Letter to Ministers of Trade from Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement...
Joint letter signed by 43 civil society organizations Dear Ministers: As organisations representing health professionals and health advocates from countries that are signatories to the Trans-Pacific...
View ArticleData Exclusivity Exceptions and Compulsory Licensing to Promote Generic...
Authors: Ellen F.M. ‘t Hoen, Pascale Boulet and Brook K. Baker Abstract: The challenge of providing access to high-priced patented medicines is a global problem affecting all countries. A decade and a...
View ArticleMSF challenges Gilead’s patent application for hepatitis C combination...
[MSF] The international medical humanitarian organisation, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has filed a legal patent challenge in China against US pharmaceutical corporation Gilead’s patent application...
View ArticleMSF: Open Letter to European Commissioner on EU India Free Trade Agreement...
[Els Torreele] On behalf of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), an international medical humanitarian organisation that provides emergency medical assistance to populations in distress in more than 70...
View ArticleThe Drug Debate: Data Exclusivity is the New Way to Delay Generics
[Srividhya Ragavan] Abstract: The article discusses the protection regime for clinical trial data internationally and outlines the applicable protection regime. In doing so, this article outlines how...
View ArticleOpen Letter to Johnson & Johnson: Calling for Affordable Access to Critical...
[Medicins Sans Fronteirs] Dear Dr Stoffels: For the past decade, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been in dialogue with Johnson & Johnson (J&J) about the critically important TB drug...
View ArticleSouth Centre Statement to the Third High-Level Meeting on the Prevention and...
[Carlos Correa, South Centre]... More progress needs to be made to improve access to affordable, good-quality essential medicines and vaccines for all. In addition to increasing investment in access,...
View ArticleBiological Drugs – Challenges to Access
[Third World Network] In this paper Dr. Sengupta examines the landscape of biological medicines, and locates this analysis in the characteristics of biological drugs which set them apart from small...
View ArticleNew Database Documents the Power of TRIPS Flexibilities
[Ellen 't Hoen] Medicines Law & Policy has published an on-line database of instances of the use of TRIPS flexibilities in public health contexts, titled the TRIPS Flexibilities Database. The...
View ArticleMay 20: Webinar on the USMCA (NAFTA 2.0) and Access to Medicines
How will the recently-concluded United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) impact access to affordable medicines? The USMCA – the renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement (also commonly...
View ArticleResearch Synthesis: Patentability Criteria
[Marcela Vieira and Suerie Moon] We would like to share with you a new research synthesis on patentability criteria in the pharmaceutical sector. It can be accessed at...
View ArticleA Public Health-Oriented Examination of Pharmaceutical Patent Claims: Sharing...
[Lucas van der Hoeven] How to examine pharmaceutical patent applications to ensure access to affordable generic medicines while rewarding genuine pharmaceutical inventions, in accordance with the World...
View ArticleThe COVID-19 Pandemic: R&D and Intellectual Property Management for Access to...
[Viviana Muñoz Tellez] The ongoing rapid spread of COVID-19 is challenging the capacity of governments and of the World Health Organization (WHO) to timely put in place a global coordinated response to...
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