Author: James Love
KEI’s March 4, 2016 submission to USTR regarding the Special 301 list
This is a slightly expanded version of the testimony we provided at the March 1, 2016 USTR Special 301 hearing. I had some trouble uploading to Regulations.Gov, but emailed a copy to Christine R. Peterson, the Director for Intellectual Property and Innovation. One addition was this data:
2016: Did Army do analysis to determine if public is better off with exclusive license to patent?
We sent this brief note to the Army today regarding this federal register note: https://federalregister.gov/a/2016-04494
From: Jamie Love
Date: Sat, Mar 5, 2016
To: Phoebe.E.Lenear@usace.army.mil
Subject: Digital Optical Method patentsI am writing about the notice of intent for an exclusive license to patents on the Digital Optical Method (DOMTM ), United States Patent No. 7,495,767.
KEI comments to the Senate Finance Committee Report on the Price of Sovaldi
On March 4, 2016, KEI provided comments to the US Senate Committee on Finance on a report prepared by staff for Senators Grassley and Wyden that was issued by the committee on December 2015, titled “The Price of Sovaldi and Its Impact on the U.S. Health Care System.” Senators Grassley and Wyden asked the public to comment on various issues raised in the report. The comments we filed on March 4 included three major sections.
Colombia takes an important step in defining the public interest in compulsory licensing case
(More on Colombia here: /colombia)
Andrea Carolina Reyes Rojas informs us that a committee appointed to consider a request for a compulsory license on the leukemia drug Imatinib has decided that there are public interest reasons to do so.
A copy of the decision is available here. Andrew Goldman shares some thoughts and context here.
KEI submissions to the UN Secretary General’s High Level Panel on Access to Medicine
Attached below are the four submissions for which KEI was the lead author to the UN Secretary General’s High Level Panel (HLP) on Access to Medicine.
- “The Need for Global Negotiations on Agreements to Fund R&D within the Context of a Progressive De-linking of R&D Costs from Product Prices”. Supported by 12 organizations; 1 individual; 3 Members of European Parliament.
- “Increasing the Transparency of Markets for Drugs, Vaccines, Diagnostics and other Medical Technologies”. Supported by 17 organizations; 2 individuals; 3 Members of European Parliament.
DHHS declared public health emergency for Zika virus
DHHS has declared a public health emergency over the Zika virus, and authorized emergency use of diagnostic tests. (Copy here)
Notes from KEI’s testimony at today’s USTR Special 301 hearing
(An expanded, edited and better version of this is available in our March 4, 2016 reply comment to USTR, available here: https://www.keionline.org/node/2440)
These were my notes from my testimony for KEI at today’s USTR Special 301 hearing
Big market puts countries on the #special301 watch list
Schedule for the March 1, 2016 USTR Special 301 Hearing
KEI is one of the non-government entities speaking at the USTR Special 301 hearing on Tuesday. We each get 7 minutes of testimony and 3 minutes of questions. (The schedule is here).
Equitable Access Initiative (EAI), 1st intervention
I am in a meeting of the Equitable Access Initiative (EAI), which is considering new ways of measuring development and/or health needs, in the context of the priority setting by donors. I am a member of the Expert Panel, and this was my intervention in the morning session:
The presentations by John McArthur and Dominik Zotti were excellent, and the work of the four expert groups is a very useful contribution for those struggling with the challenge of setting priorities for aid.