The US based National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are collaborating on a program called Basic Research to Enable Agricultural Development (BREAD). A May 12, 2010 NSF announcement about the program is available here. Continue Reading
As 2011 unfolds, the following conferences and negotiations are expected to shape the knowledge governance landscape this year at WHO, WIPO and WTO.
World Health Organization
Cancer: Annual deaths compared to new cases in 2004, for 16 types of cancer and 4 World Bank income groups
The following table compares the annual deaths from cancer, to the annual incidence of the disease, broken down by cancer type and income group. The data in the table is annual deaths divided by annual incidence, show as a ratio.
For several types of cancer, there is not much difference in the reported ratios, between different income groups. For other types of cancer, the differences are large, and in favor of patients living in higher income countries. Cancer types with the largest disparities by income include the following:
- Mouth and oropharynx cancers
Ratio of year 2000 breast cancer deaths to new breast cancer patients in Europe, by country and country income
The following graph presents the year 2000 raw mortality rate of breast cancer patients in 36 European Countries. The graph compares the ratio of breast cancer deaths to the annual incidence of breast cancer, to the per capita incomes in those countries, all based upon year 2000 data. Continue Reading
2 USTR’s Request for Comments on ACTA
USTR has issued a request for comments on ACTA. The deadline for submissions is February 15, 2011. The notice gives very little guidance regarding the issues the USTR would like addressed in the comments.
[Billing Code 3190-W1-P]
Office of the United States Trade Representative
Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement: Request for Comments from the Public
Agency: Office of the United States Trade Representative
Action: Request for written submissions from the public
Notes from meeting with USTR on the TPP IPR chapter
Today USTR provided some additional insight into negotiations of a regional, Asia-Pacific trade agreement, known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement. The USTR web page on the TPP negotiations is http://www.ustr.gov/tpp. At present, the TPP negotiators include Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. Japan and Canada have expressed interest in joining the negotiations, and USTR clearly would like to design an agreement that will be open to other countries. Our discussions focused on the intellectual property chapter in the agreement. Continue Reading
US Industry IP memo for the TPP negotiations leaked
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) has received a copy of U.S. industry demands on the Intellectual Property chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) negotiations. A draft letter from US industry to USTR has been leaked and is available here.
Development Agenda committee mandates WIPO to examine Bolivia, Barbados, Suriname and Bangladesh prize proposals
On Friday, 26 November 2010, the 6th session of the WIPO Committee on Development Agenda and Intellectual Property approved a project entitled “Project on Open Collaborative Projects and IP-Based Models”. As mentioned in KEI’s previous posting on this subject, this project endeavors to implement Recommendation 36 of the Development Agenda which states:
NIH funded research involving trastuzumab (marketed by Roche under the trade name Herceptin)
13 December 2010
Drugs@FDA
Drug Name(s) HERCEPTIN (Brand Name Drug)
FDA Application No. (BLA) 103792
Active Ingredient(s) TRASTUZUMAB
Company GENENTECH (Roche acquired a majority ownership in 1990, and full ownership in March 2009.)
Original Approval or Tentative Approval Date September 25, 1998What is Herceptin? How does it work?
Statements by KEI and others on NIH rejection of Fabrazyme March-In Request
For background on the Fabrazyme case, see: https://www.keionline.org/fabrazyme
The following statements were made today by civil society on the NIH rejection of the Fabrazyme March-in Request Petition. Contact Judit Rius at judit.rius@keionline.org if your organization would like to submit an statement.
Statement by James Love, Director of Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) (Contact: 1.202.361.3040)