Knowledge Ecology International

The following WTO airgram WTO/AIR/3943/REV.1 (23 May 2012) contains the agenda for the upcoming WTO Council for TRIPS meeting to be held in Geneva from Tuesday, 5 June 2012 to Wednesday, 6 June 2012. The airgram notes that the United States has made a written request for an agenda item on the “exchange of information on securing supply chains against counterfeit goods” (agenda item K). Brazil and the United States made a joint request for an additional agenda item (L) on “copyright limitations and exceptions: ongoing negotiations at WIPO-Briefing by Brazil and the United States”. Continue Reading →

Donald McNeil has an article in the New York Times that appeared in print on May 22, 2012 (page D6 of the New York edition) with the headline: “Malaria: Fake and Substandard Drugs Grow as Threat to Fight Disease.” A web version is available here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/22/health/policy/fake-and-substandard-drugs-grow-as-threat-to-fight-malaria.html

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KEI Statement on World Health Assembly resolution on Consultative Expert Working Group on Research and Development: Financing and Coordination

A number of developing countries worked together to push the World Health Assembly to create a member state process to consider the implementation of the CEWG. The most important CEWG recommendations are to begin work on a new WHO Convention on R&D financing, and to de-link R&D costs from drug prices.

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Here is the resolution that was adopted.

/wp-content/uploads/Item13.14_AdvanceDraftResolution.pdf

Among the key parts of the 2 page resolution are the following:

1. WELCOMES the analysis of the CEWG report and expresses its appreciation to the Chair, Vice Chair and all the members of the Working Group for their work;
2. URGES Member States:2
(1) to hold national level consultations among all relevant stakeholders in order to discuss the CEWG report and other relevant analyses resulting in concrete proposals and actions;
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This is a brief note regarding the WHA negotiations on the proposed treaty for medical R&D, and in particular, the elements which deal with financing R&D. I’ll skip the history and earlier context of the negotiations, and focus on the main issues in play this week.

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On May 23, 2012, the World Health Assembly began discussion of Agenda Item 13.14, the report of the Consultative Expert Working Group (CEWG) on Research and Development Financing and Coordination.

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On Wednesday, 23 May 2012, Chile delivered the following statement on patents and health at the 18th session of the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP). In particular, Chile made a strong case for the WIPO SCP to study existing flexibilities in the international patent system. Continue Reading →

The World Heath Organization is now debating proposal in a report form a Consultative Expert Working Group (CEWG) on R&D for a new medical R&D treaty, focusing on the special health needs of developing countries. The following table shows how much money various regions and countries would be obligated to spend on R&D, under the treaty proposal, which is .0001 of GDP, of which 20 percent would be invested through pooled funding mechanisms.