1 March 2017 – WTO TRIPS Council – India’s intervention on the Report of the UN High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines
On 1 March 2017, India delivered the following statement during WTO TRIPS Council discussions on the United Nations Secretary-General’s High Level Panel Report on Access to Medicines.
Agenda item 12: the United Nations Secretary-General’s High Level Panel Report on Access to MedicinesThank you Chairman.
At the outset, I would like to thank delegations of Brazil, China and South Africa who are also co-sponsors of this agenda item.
1 March 2017 – WTO TRIPS Council – Brazil’s intervention on the Report of the UN High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines
On 1 March 2017, Brazil delivered the following statement during WTO TRIPS Council discussions on the Report of the United Nations High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines.
High Level PanelAs we all know, on 19 November 2015, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced the creation of the High-Level Panel on Innovation and Access to Health Technologies. Responding to this invitation, two chairs were designated to the panel, namely, Ms. Ruth Dreifuss, from Switzerland, and Festus Mogae, from Botswana.
Ambassador Shameem Ahsan (Bangladesh) remarks on UN HLP – Opportunities to Advance Health Technology and Access
On 1 March 2017, Bangladesh, Brazil, India and South Africa, the Secretariat of the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines and the South Centre convened a side event at the World Trade Organization (WTO) on the United Nations Secretary-General’s High Level Panel on Access to Medicines: Opportunities to Advance Health Technology and Access. This event took place on the margins of the WTO TRIPS Council.
CDC FOIA shows US, WHO opposed request to discuss UNSG’s High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines Report at EB
Email records and memoranda released by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in response to a Knowledge Ecology International Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request show that representatives of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United States government opposed including India’s proposed agenda item on the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines for discussion at the 140th WHO Executive Board meeting.
The full set of documents, which was released to KEI without redaction, are available here:
MEP Lola Sánchez questions the European Commission: EU’s position on the UN High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines at WIPO
On 2 February 2017, MEP Lola Sánchez Caldentey (Podemos, Spain) tabled a series of written questions to the European Commission on the positions taken by the European Union at the World Intellectual Property Organization on 14 December 2016 in relation to the United Nations High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines (UN HLP)
All 12 Zhang/Broad Institute CRISPR patents declare US funding and rights in inventions
February 15, 2017, the USPTO ruled that 12 genome-editing CRISPR-Cas9 patents and one patent application assigned to the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT did not interfere with a patent application from scientists at the University of California. A copy of the ruling is available here.
Following the ruling by the USPTO that the Broad Institute and the University of California both issued statements, as did several firms with an interest in the dispute.
Feb 24, 2017 – U.S. History, Experiences, and Prospects of Compulsory Licensing of Medical Patents
Full Video of Event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-stSKXmY-Wc
On Friday, February 24, 2017, KEI hosted a meeting exploring compulsory licensing in the United States.
Title: History, Experiences, and Prospects of Compulsory Licensing on Medical Patents in the United States
Date: Friday February 24, 2017
Location: Kaiser Permanente Center for Total Health
700 Second St. NE (near Union Station)
Washington, DC 20002Chilean Cámara de Diputados votes overwhelmingly to advance compulsory licensing of drug patents.
The Cámara de Diputados of the Chilean Congress voted on January 25, 2017 in favor of Resolution 798, calling on the government to implement compulsory licenses on drugs for cancer and other diseases. The vote was 67 yes, 0 no, and 32 abstentions. The resolution was put forward by Giorgio Jackson and six other members (V. Mirosevic, Miguel Alvarado, Karla Rubilar, Juan Luis Castro, Gabriel Boric, and Victor Torres). Continue Reading
EB140: Statement of India on the Report of the United Nations High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines
On the morning of Monday, 23 January 2017, India delivered the following intervention at the 140th session of the World Health Organization’s Executive Board requesting the “explicit inclusion” of the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel Report in the “provisional agenda of the EB140 as a separate agenda item under item 8.”
In making the case for the inclusion of the UN HLP in the WHO’s Executive Board deliberations, India articulate the following:
Spinraza: KEI asks DHHS Office of the Inspector General (OIG) to investigate a failure to disclose federal funding in patents
KEI has asked the DHHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) to investigate a failure to disclose federal funding of patents on nusinersen, a drug developed by Ionis Pharmaceuticals (formerly known as Isis Pharmacetuicals) with BioGen, and sold under the trade name Spinraza.
A copy of the 22 page letter to OIG is available here.