The TPP, following a plethora of other trade agreements involving the United States, the European Union and Japan as trading partners, seeks to expand and extend drug monopolies, by requiring lower standards for the grant of patents, extensions of patent terms, exclusive rights in test data, among other measures. These proposals and polices are designed to have the predictable effect of making drug prices higher.
On Tuesday, 26 May 2015, the following statement was delivered in Committee B of the 68th World Health Assembly on behalf of Stichting Health Action International and Knowledge Ecology International on the topic: Follow-up to the 2014 high-level meeting of the United Nations General Assembly to undertake a comprehensive review and assessment of the progress achieved in the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases.
Panel discussion
Compulsory licensing of patents on drugs, vaccines and diagnostic tests
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) and Knowledge Ecology International Europe (KEI Europe):
DATE: Thursday, 21 May 2015
TIME: 17:30-19:00
VENUE: Kofi Annan Room, UNAIDS, Avenue Appia 20
Moderator:
Panel members
On Monday, 18 May 2015, the Greek Minister of Health, Panagiotis Kouroumplis, delivered the following speech at the World Health Assembly in Geneva, explicitly calling for the de-linkage of the “cost of R&D from the final price of medicines” while highlighting the deleterious effects of austerity measures eroding public health systems, counter to the theme of WHA68, “Resilient Health Systems”.
Here is his speech in full:
Madam Director General, dear colleagues, excellencies, ladies and gentlemen
This is a briefing note prepared for TPP negotiators, addressing a single but important issue, the standards for issuing compulsory licenses in the TPP. Continue Reading
Attached is the text of a letter sent by Senator Bernie Sanders to Robert A. McDonald, the Secretary, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, asking the Secretary “to use your authority as Secretary of Veterans Affairs to break the patents on Hepatitis C medications for the treatment of veterans suffering with the disease.”
To prepare for the upcoming 68th World Health Assembly (WHA), the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services held a Stakeholder Listening Session on Friday, May 8, 2015, from 10:30am – 12pm in the HHS Humphrey Building – 200 Independence Ave, SW, Washington, DC 20201. All Agenda items for the upcoming WHA are here:
http://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/WHA68/A68_1-en.pdf
Continue Reading
On Friday May 8, 2015, the US Department of Health and Human Services held a listening session to solicit input on the agenda items for the upcoming 68th World Health Assembly. KEI delivered five interventions covering a range of critical WHA topics. The full provisional agenda of the 68th WHA can be accessed here.
Re: 17.4 Follow-up of the report of the Consultative Expert Working Group on Research and Development: Financing and Coordination Document A68/34
My name is James Love, from Knowledge Ecology International. I wanted to discuss the negotiations on new approaches to funding medical R&D.
I will begin with the much delayed discussions about a WHO R&D treaty, which are supposed to resume in 2016.
We have suggestions for some changes in the discussion, to move things forward.
On Friday May 8, 2015, the US Department of Health and Human Services held a listening session to solicit input on the agenda items for the upcoming 68th World Health Assembly. KEI delivered five interventions covering a range of critical WHA topics. The full provisional agenda of the 68th WHA can be accessed here: