Author: Thiru

On 13 April 2011, Senator Orrin Hatch (Republican-Utah) wrote a letter to then-Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton complaining about Global Fund’s policy on generic procurement and compulsory licensing. With respect to procurement, Sen. Hatch asserted that Global Fund monies were used to procure generic drugs “at unnecessary costs in recipient countries” while branded drugs (all Abbott products) were were available at a lower cost. Continue Reading →

On Tuesday, 5 February 2013, the Secretariats of the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) released their joint publication, Promoting Access to Medical Technologies and Innovation: Intersections between public health, intellectual property and trade. This 251-page report covers a lot of ground.

In the words of the secretariats,

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* The author thanks Belinda Townsend, Katy Athersuch, Judit Rius Sanjuan and Alice Fabbri for their comprehensive notes during the WHO Executive Board discussion of the CEWG agenda item.

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Joint Letter to the 132nd WHO Executive Board: Follow-up of the report of the CEWG

Distinguished Delegate,

We are writing to express our deep concern at the lack of ambition and apparent inaction of the WHO and Member States in taking forward the work of the Consultative Expert Working Group on Research and Development: Financing and Coordination (CEWG). This inaction is costing lives.

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The Licensing Executives Society International, Inc. (LESI) is convening its second Global Technology Impact Forum (GTIF) at the headquarters of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) from 20 January 2013 to 22 January 2013. Although this international forum is hosted at WIPO headquarters, this event does not appear on the calendar of WIPO events for January 2013. It should be noted that this Forum just precedes the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting In Davos from 23 January 2013 to 27 January 2013.

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KEI collection of various interviews, statements and news clips from the December 17-18, 2012 WIPO Extraordinary General Assembly that approved a June 2013 diplomatic conference to negotiate a treaty on copyright exceptions for persons with certain disabilities.

Video Interviews

Video interviews from the WIPO Extraordinary General Assembly, after reaching a landmark decision to:

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After a tense day of negotiation with all sorts of threats to block progress, it seems as though World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is poised to approve a diplomatic conference “to negotiate and adopt a treaty on limitations and exceptions for visually impaired persons/persons with print disabilities.” The USA had come into the meeting trying to downgrade the agreement from a treaty to an agreement of ambiguous non-treaty status, and both the US and the EU wanted today’s decision to be subject to a later approval — dubbed either the kill switch or the safety Continue Reading →

Venezuela delivered the following statement on 17 December 2012 at the WIPO Extraordinary General Assembly.

VENEZUELA: Thank you, Chairman.

Likewise, we, too, wish to extend thanks to the Director General and the Secretariat and the ambassador of Zambia for his successful leading work in the SCCR. We support the holding of a Diplomatic Conference on this subject. It will be a very significant political signal if we were to convene this conference which has very major human rights over tones.

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This was the statement delivered today (17 December 2012) by Egypt on behalf of the African Group at the Forty-Second (22nd Extraordinary) Session of the WIPO General Assembly.

African Group. The African Group would like to welcome the significant progress achieved on advancing the draft text of WIPO Treaty on limitations and exceptions for visually impaired persons, person with print disabilities, which was adopted in November 2012 by the Standing Committee to Copyright and Related Rights, in its 25th session.

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Morocco delivered this statement today (17 December 2012) announcing its formal candidacy to host a Diplomatic Conference in June 2013.

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