Year: 2012

On Thursday, 5 April 2012, the World Health Organization released the report of the Report of the Consultative Expert Working Group on Research and Development: Financing and Coordination entitled “Research and Development to Meet Health Needs in Developing Countries: Strengthening Global Financing and Coordination”. The 218 page report will take some time to fully assess.

The report can be found here: http://www.who.int/phi/CEWG_Report_5_April_2012.pdf

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On March 12, 2012, Tedmund Wan posted a note on Joe Biden’s appointment of Steve Ricchetti, exploring potential conflicts of interest with the clients in a lobbying firm that he ran. On March 29, 2012, KEI formally asked Ricchetti to recuse himself in matters concerning his former clients. The letter follows.

29 March 2012

Steve Ricchetti
Counselor to Vice President Joe Biden
The White House
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In response to a Federal Register notice seeking comments on genetic diagnostic testing, KEI submitted comments detailing several proposals with respect to patents on diagnostic technologies and also included notes regarding our position in the American Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics litigation. In addition to the questions listed in Federal Register notice, we recommended that the USPTO address two additional questions:

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This week WIPO and the Library of Congress are holding a week long symposium on International Copyright, with title:

Emerging Issues in Copyright and Related Rights for Developing
Countries and Countries with Economies in Transition
organized by
the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
in cooperation with
the United States Copyright Office, Library of Congress
Washington D.C., March 19 to 23, 2012

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In a major patent ruling today, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a unanimous decision in Mayo v. Prometheus Laboratories. The case, heard twice before the Federal Circuit (once before the Supreme Court’s ruling in Bilski and once after), has been closely followed because of its impacts on personalized medicine and potential implications for the Myriad Genetics case on the BRCA genes. The Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and held that Prometheus’ patents-at-issue were not eligible for patent protection.

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On March 20, 2012, Senator Wyden (D-OR) filed two amendments to H.R. 3606, a bill known in its short form as “Jumpstart Our Business Startups” or JOBS Act, related to the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA).

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Sally Susman of Pfizer leads the most lethal lobbying effort on drug patents and prices. She’s also a big Obama campaign fundraiser.

For several years, Pfizer has been considered a hardliner among big pharma companies on international negotiations over intellectual property rights and drug pricing. This has not changed despite the company having had three CEOs in the past five years.

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The following information is taken directly from the World Trade Organization’s dispute settlement web page which reports that on 13 March 2012, Ukraine requested consultations with Australia under the WTO’s dispute settlement system with respect to Australia’s Tobacco Plain Packaging Bill 2011 which the WTO website noted imposes “trademark restrictions and other plain packaging requirements on tobacco products“.

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