On Friday, 20 October 2017, India delivered the following intervention on compulsory licensing. India briefly recounted the experiences of Brazil, South Africa, and Thailand in using compulsory licensing to secure access to ARVs.
On October 17, 2017, KEI sent a letter to the NIH regarding the failure of the University of Pennsylvania to disclose federal funding of five patented inventions for CAR T.
Today (October 18, 2017), we received this statement from the University:
“We have reviewed the letter and have confirmed that each of these patents was reported to the government as having NIH funding.
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