On October 13, 2017, KEI submitted comments to the WHO regarding the Draft Concept Note towards the WHO’s 13th General Programme of Work. The Draft Concept Note is available here: http://www.who.int/about/draft-concept-note_13th-programme-work.pdf
The text of KEI’s comments follow below, and a PDF is available here.
Friday, 13 October 2017
Dear Dr. Tedros,
The biologic drug, Humira (adalimumab) is currently the best selling drug in the world, with revenues of more than $16 billion in 2016, and $4.7 billion in the 2nd quarter of 2017 ($52 million per day). 
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On Wednesday, 4 October 2017, Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) delivered the following statement at the WIPO General Assembly during discussions on the Report of the Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP).
WIPO General Assembly 2017 – Statement of KEI on the Report on the Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP)
4 October 2017
Agenda item: 14. Report on the Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP)
As noted in an earlier piece, on 25 August 2017 the WHO published a draft concept note to provide a road map to “underpin WHO’s General Programme of of Work from 2019-2023… and serve as the strategic basis for resource mobilization” for the Organization (WHO draft concept note on strategic priorities for 2019-2023 charts a new vision for the organization, 29 August 2017, KEI). Continue Reading
Attached is a letter sent on September 14, 2017 to Andrew Bremberg, an Assistant to the President and the Director of the Domestic Policy Council at the White House, and Keagan Lenihan, a Senior Adviser to HHS Secretary Tom Price, regarding Zinbrytra (INN: daclizumab), a drug to approved by the FDA to treat multiple sclerosis. (PDF version here)
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) delivered the following statement during discussions at the WHO South East Asia Region (SEARO) Regional Committee on Access to Medicines on 9 September 2017 in the Maldives.
(Photo taken by Cristina Bajar)
Intervention of Knowledge Ecology InternationalSeventieth Session of the Regional Committee – SEARO: 8.3 Access to medicines – SEA/RC70/9
Saturday, 9 September 20172017: Nanobernetics proposed exclusive license for NIH patents on Apparatus for Microarray Binding Sensors
(More on government funded inventions here. Other KEI comments on NIH licenses are found here.) The attached file (copy here) is the KEI questions and initial comments on the Prospective Grant of an Exclusive Patent License: Apparatus for Microarray Binding Sensors Having… Continue Reading
2017: Kymriah, the Novartis $475,000 CAR T treatment, received 50 percent Orphan Drug tax credit on trials
Missing in the reporting on the Novartis price for Kymriah, its new $475,000 CAR T treatment, is that Novartis received an Orphan Drug designation in February 3, 2015, and sequently received a tax credit subsidy from the United States equal to 50 percent of the cost of qualifying clinical trials.
From the FDA database on Orphan Designations:
https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/opdlisting/oopd/detailedIndex.cfm?cfgridkey=463114WHO draft concept note on strategic priorities for 2019-2023 charts a new vision for the organization
On 25 August 2017, the World Health Organization (WHO) published a draft concept note to provide a strategic framework to underpin WHO’s General Programme of of Work from 2019-2023. Continue Reading
KEI statement regarding Gilead’s Acquisition of Kite Pharma
KEI statement regarding Gilead’s Acquisition of Kite Pharma.
“Congress should require the NIH to enforce the Bayh-Dole obligation to make the Kite Pharma Chimeric Antigen Receptors Technologies (CAR T) treatments available to the public on reasonable terms.
KEI notes that Kite reported spending $317 million in R&D from 2012 to June 30, 2017, and is selling the company for $11.9 billion.