SEARO RC70: Statement of Knowledge Ecology International on Access to Medicines
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.
Workshop: Patents, the Public Interest and Two New Medical Technologies: CRISPR and CAR T
Workshop: Patents, the Public Interest and Two New Medical Technologies: Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR), Chimeric Antigen Receptors (CAR) technologies
On September 15th, 2017, Knowledge Ecology International will be hosting a workshop on: “Patents, the Public Interest and Two New Medical Technologies: CRISPR and CAR T.”If you are unable to attend in person, a livestream of the event will be available here
2017: miRecule/NIH license on MicroRNA Therapeutics for Treating Squamous Cell Carcinomas
Attached (PDF file here) are the KEI comments on the proposed NIH exclusive license to miRecule for MicroRNA Therapeutics for Treating Squamous Cell Carcinomas.
The seven page letter concludes with these words:
2017: Salubris Biotherapuetics: Bispecific, Biparatopic Antibody-Drug Conjugate for Human Liver Cancers
(More on government funded inventions here. Other KEI comments on NIH licenses are found here.) Attached are the August 8, 2017 KEI comments regarding the prospective grant of an exclusive patent license by the NIH to Salubris Biotherapuetics for the development of… Continue Reading
2017: KEI initial comments on NIH proposed grant of exclusive license on liver cancer treatment to Salubris
On August 8, 2017, Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) submitted comments on the proposed grant of an exclusive license from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to Salubris Biotherapuetics, Inc, a corporation headquartered in Guangdong, China, for an important new technology that could be used Continue Reading
NIH response to KEI request for NIH policy on on the licensing of federally-funded CRISPR patented inventions.
On June 6, 2017, KEI wrote to Dr. Thomas Price, Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), and Dr. Francis S. Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) requesting the HHS develop a policy on the licensing of federally-funded CRISPR patented inventions. A copy of our letter is available here: /node/2801.