Author: James Love
Size Matters: PhRMA’s Special 301 picks for South America.
Every year, USTR publishes the names of countries that do not adequately protect intellectual property rights. (See /ustr/special301) . Among the classifications are the Priority Watch List (PWL) and the somewhat lower status Watch List (WL).
Total expenses vs reported expenditures on lobbying, six trade associations that lobby on IPR
President Obama claims to have kept “lobbyists” off the advisory boards for USTR. The Obama Administration relies upon the narrow legal definition of those persons who register to lobby the US Congress, which excludes expenditures to direct, supervise or support the lobbyists, and expenditures of many staff and consultants who are not fully engaged in lobbying the Congress. Expenditures to influence the executive branch (including USTR) has very little if any regulation, and are not counted as lobbying. Continue Reading
Who USTR clears to see secret text for IPR negotiations? (Such as TPPA)
In a meeting with USTR on February 15, 2012, KEI, MSF, Oxfam and Public Citizen pressed USTR to release the negotiating text for the intellectual property rights chapter in the TPPA trade agreement negotiation. USTR said the negotiation had “unprecedented” transparency, but maintained the text needed to be secret from the general public. USTR also claimed than no one on its many advisory boards, who are cleared to see the negotiating text, were lobbyists.
KEI and Essential Inventions comments to Special 301 Committee
U.S. Dept of Commerce asked to review Africa Intellectual Property Forum compliance w/ Executive Order 13155
Health GAP, KEI, Oxfam, Public Citizen, Universities Allied for Essential Medicines and Professor Susan Sell have written Cameron Forbes Kerry, the General Counsel for the U.S. Department of Commerce, asking Kerry to “review work on the Africa Intellectual Property Forum, currently scheduled for April 3-5, 2012 in Cape Town, South Africa, to see if the sponsorship of the event violates Executive Order 13155, on Access to HIV/AIDS Pharmaceuticals and Medical Technologies.” Executive Order 13155 was issued by President Clinton on May 10, 2000 after an extensive review of U.S. Continue Reading
Article on medical innovation prize fund from Het Financieele Dagblad
Attached is a pdf of an article in the Dutch Het Financieele Dagblad, regarding medical innovation prize funds. An html version is available here. Continue Reading
2012: Representatives Issa (R-CA) and Maloney (D-NY) introduce anti-open access legislation
On December 16, 2011, H.R. 3699, “the Research Works Act”, was introduced by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Committee member Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY). This is how the Association of American Publishers describes the bill:
USTR to “clarify” its position on extension of LDC transition period for TRIPS
On June 11, 2011, KEI published KEI Policy Brief 2011:1, which was titled: “White House and European Commission trade official oppose waiver of drug patents for Least Developed Countries (LDCs).”
Pharma company registered lobbying expenditures for USA
According to OpenSecrets.Org, the pharmaceutical manufacturing sector has reported $115,571,832 in lobbying for 2011, a number that will grow considerably when all quarterly reports are filed. The top lobbying outlays were reported by PhRMA, the trade association, followed by Pfizer, Amgen, Merck, Lilly, Novartis, Bayer and GSK. The top generic company was Teva, which ranked 12th overall. As reported by OpenSecrets, some firms are listed more than once, for lobbying outlays by different subsidiaries. Continue Reading