On Tuesday, 20 May 2008, the United Arab Emirates, Nigeria, Ghana, Gambia and Tunisia introduced a draft resolution (A61/A/Conf. Paper No 1) on counterfeiting.
While counterfeiting medicines is an important public health problem, and as traditionally defined, is a criminal enterprise that should be subject to tough legal sanctions, the resolution is problematic.
One of the most important battles being waged both inside and outside of the IGWG concerns the nature of competition for the supply of inexpensive medicines and vaccines.
The large pharma companies with well-known brands and big marketing and distribution systems want to marginalize developing country generic suppliers, as actual or potential competitors. This plays out in various ways. For example:
In a blog posted today on the Huffington Post, I could have, should have, elaborated a bit on the few U.S. journalists who had written about the trade disputes involving patents on medicines, before AIDS activists began their zaps of Gore’s presidential campaign in June of 1999.
During the current SCCR 17 discussions on copyright limitations and exceptions, some delegates are unfamiliar with the longstanding efforts to engage WIPO delegates in this issue. Here are some rough notes of *some* of the times when this issue has… Continue Reading
There have been many new stories about Google’s new prize for cell phone applications (Such as this one).
This is how the program is described by Google:
On September 20, the The New York Times reported on Barrick’s announcement it would offer “a $10 million prize on Wednesday to any scientist, researcher or inventor who can increase the amount of silver the company recovers from a mine in Argentina.” The rules for the prize are set out here: http://www.unlockthevalue.com/
Tom Giovanetti kindly sent me a link to his latest NGO bashing. This one titled: “IP skeptic NGOs as Marxists.” This is his attempt to label the various public health groups as Marxists, and his brief attempt to understand or describe a February 2005 proposal for one possible approach R&D Treaty.
First, I have told Tom Giovanetti several times that while his hysterical red baiting is amusing at times, it is also sometimes offensive and boring.
I’m not sure who has been sharing this on the list, but the very worst country in the negotiations, among the 190+ members of the WHO, is, without a doubt, Sweden. Sweden has been making it very difficult for Europe to take reasonable positions in the negotiations, and Sweden is consistently taking the most extreme positions in the negotiations among the European countries, and competing with Mexico for the most anti-consumer views in the room.
Tomorrow morning (Friday the 9th), the IGWG finally takes up Element 5, the intellectual property text. These are the deletions to the text being requested by Mexico.
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ELEMENT 3
This would include:
building innovative capacity in science and technology and traditional medicine/genetic resources, in agreement with the legislation existing in the Parties on this issues;
rational health-orientated intellectual property management. (Mexico suggest delete)
The following are selected cables from the US Department of State, obtained under the U.S. FOIA statutes, concerning patents and price negotiations on AIDS drugs. 2004 U.S. DoS Cable: GOB REACHES PRICING AGREEMENTS ON THREE MORE AIDS DRUGS – January… Continue Reading