On August 10, 2010, KEI sent a letter to the President of Mexico expressing our concerns in the position of the Mexican government in the ACTA negotiations. KEI noted that the proposed ACTA text, if adopted, would require the adoption of new legal provisions that would compromise the public interest of Mexico. KEI asked the Mexican government to change some positions it had taken earlier in the negotiation, and to support the inclusion in the ACTA text of of new flexibilities and protections of the fundamental rights of its citizens.

The following are selected documents from the 1998 to 1999 WHO debate of the revised drug strategy.

• The January 1998 proposal for the Revised Drug Strategy (EB101.R24)
• May 27, 1998 Department of State cable: Revised Drug Strategy At W.H.O.: Atmospherics Of The Debate, And Recommended Plan Of Action.
• European Commission October 5, 1998 memorandum on the WHO Revised Drug Strategy negotiation

On Tuesday, August 17, 2010, USTR organized a lunch between ACTA negotiators and civil society NGOs. There was not much notice. We received our invite to the lunch last Thursday. Representatives from KEI, Public Citizen, Oxfam, Public Knowledge and the American University program on intellectual property attended the event.

Since the early ‘70s, European countries have adopted a comprehensive legal framework on personal data protection that aims to balance the free flow of information for market purposes with an adequate level of protection for the right of privacy.

The following is a letter written by Alberto Cerda Silva, a Research Associate of Knowledge Ecology International, to Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, Presidente Constitucional de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos, regarding the position of the Mexican government in the ACTA negotiations.

USTR will host the next round of ACTA negotiations that will take place all of next week, August 16-20, in Washington DC. According to USTR yesterday, the negotiators "expect to cover all issues" and the agenda would be made available in a day or so.

Here is a proposed agenda that we have obtained from another source.

ANTI-COUNTERFEITING TRADE AGREEMENT (ACTA)
PROPOSED AGENDA
10th Round of Negotiations
August 16th-20th, 2010, Washington, DC

According to an informed source, USTR intimated that next week's ACTA meeting in Washington DC will be attended by all the negotiating parties and that discussions would include all issues under consideration in ACTA. We are still awaiting a response from USTR regarding the attendees, scope and purpose of the meeting but this new information seems to be indicative of nothing short of the next ACTA round.

Earlier, US government officials had informed that the an intersessional meeting would be held the week of 16 August in Washington DC.

WHO has released the 'List of Members of, and Advisor to, the International Health Regulations (2005) Emergency Committee concerning Influenza Pandemic (H1N1) 2009' at the following site: http://www.who.int/ihr/emerg_comm_members_2009/en/. Of the 15 members and one advisor, 6 had declaration of interests. On this matter, WHO had the following statement:

For additional context

• Public and Private Sector Research for Fabry's Disease KEI Research Note 2010:2.
• Datapoints on Fabrazyme prices.
• The extension of US Patent No 5,356,804
• KEI web page on the Bayh-Dole Act, including links to other March-In cases.