Last evening the Global Health Council (GHC) and the Global Health Forum (GHF) co-hosted an event on funding R&D for neglected diseases. The event was one of several hosted by the GHC at the posh Intercontinental Hotel.
A “proposal” for PDP funding was presented by Novartis, IAVI and Mary Moran. Called PDP+, it was an attempt to “merge” three different proposals that were endorsed by the WHO Expert Working Group (EWG).
On Wednesday, 19 May 2010, the launch of the 2.3(c) Committee will take place at Room XXV of the Palais de Nations from 13:00 to 14:30. Element 2.3(c) of the WHO Global Strategy on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property states:
encourage further exploratory discussions on the utility of possible instruments or mechanisms for essential health and biomedical R&D, including inter alia, an essential health and biomedical R&D treaty
As the 63rd World Health Assembly (WHA) opens on May 17, 2010, WHO member countries will meet to consider matters of great moment including such topics as ‘counterfeit medical products’, pandemic influenza preparedness (sharing of influenza viruses and access to vaccines and other benefits) and the Report of the WHO Expert Working Group on R&D Financing. Continue Reading
In a letter dated 4 May 2010, the Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Pascal Lamy has responded to questions and concerns of the European Parliament regarding the Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). Continue Reading
12 May 2010
Statement of Knowledge Ecology International on possible WTO disputes against the EU seizures of goods in transit
Thiru Balasubramaniam, Geneva Representative
“In a world with territorial patent rights, it is important that the rules for ‘goods in transit’ permit the transport of medicines from places where they can be made to places where they will be used. The EU’s systematic seizure of at least 17 drug consignments is indefensible and undermines the very principle of free trade, the raison d’être of the World Trade Organization.
USTR has released its 2010 Special 301 list. Closely following the IIPI and the PhRMA asks, the Special 301 Priority Watch List countries are: Algeria, Argentina, Canada, Chile, China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Russia, Thailand, and Venezuela. Among high income countries, Finland, Norway and Spain made the Watch list this year. Sweden was off.
The Chapter FIVE (Institutional Arrangements) of ACTA is short. In less than 4 pages (pp 33-36) the negotiators “hereby establish” and “Oversight Steering Committee” (the OSC). Of course all of this chapter can be revisited later (see footnote 73) but let’s examine what is proposed now.
On April 21, 2010, an official version of the consolidated negotiating text of the proposal Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) was published. Next Wednesday, April 28, 2010, the Trans-Atlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD) will host a series of roundtable discussions about the new ACTA text at the US Department of commerce, Washington, DC from 9am to 3pm.
This is an important statement by Senator Ron Wyden, the Chair of the Senate Subcommittee on International Trade, Customs and Global Competitiveness. He mentions the importance of transparency in giving the public an opportunity to “understand and shape” the agreement, and he warns that a “poorly constructed agreement could be harmful to consumers’ ability to use the Internet and could stifle the type of innovation needed to create new American jobs.”
Today the first public draft of the ACTA text was released. A copy is available here. Earlier leaked versions of the text, which include country positions, are the January 18, 2010 consolidated text, a February 2010 EU memorandum of the selected sections, and seven documents from 2008.