June 20, 2007
Morning session started late (10:50) and the Chair began with a 20 minutes lecture/monologue explaining the methodology (article by article), using the non paper as the “unofficial tool”, leaving the complex and controversial 15/2 document on the side even though that document is the only inclusive document, the one “that contains all the proposals” [except the Canadian proposal?].
Well, it was nice having an actual plenary yesterday, but Jukka is back, and he wants to move immediately to a closed session. He has made a very long speech, about the need to limit debate, and move to closed sessions. It will not be a “green room” approach just yet, but a plenary without NGOs or notes.
Between November 2006 and January 2007, Thailand issued compulsory licenses for two AIDS drugs (efavirnz and the combination of lopinavir+ritonavir) and one antihypertension drug (clopidegrel). The pharmaceutical industry has vehemently objected to these compulsory licenses, and has sought the US… Continue Reading
I arrived at WIPO yesterday for Day 1 which started at 12pm. The delegates and NGOs went for lunch at 1pm and the meeting started again in the afternoon. I’m not sure it was because of jetlag but the meeting did not make much sense. The Chair was re-elected (of course) and he just talked, talked and talked.
Day 2
PCDA Recommendations to 2007 General Assembly
(As adopted 9:38 pm June 15, 2007)
The PCDA decided to make the following recommendations to the 2007 General Assembly:
1. To adopt the recommendations for action in the agreed proposals contained in the Annex;
2. To immediately implement the recommendations contained in the list submitted by the Chair of the PCDA, in accordance with paragraph X of the Report of the Fourth Session of the PCDA;
3. A Committee on Development and IP be established immediately to:
This is Andrew Pollack’s recent story on Gilead’s new $130 per pill (use daily) for pulmonary arterial hypertension. The price of this drug, which is a once daily pill, is roughly the average per capita income in the United States, leaving nothing else for food, housing, clothing or having a beer at the local bar.
Ted Miller writes about sports in the Seattle PI (a paper I delivered door to door a long time ago). This is his column Intellectual property law begets insanity.
It is 7:40PM and the plenary has still not resumed on the final day of WIPO negotiations on Development Agenda. The final PCDA recommendations to the General Assembly are still being negotiated in the green room. Of the text reproduced here, the first six paragraphs have been agreed upon according to informed sources. The 7th paragraph is still under discussion. One would hope paragraph 4 of these PCDA recommendations would not preclude the ad hoc accreditation of intergovernmental organizations and non governmental organizations.
The John Edwards campaign has issued a statement endorsing prizes as an “alternative to patent monopolies” for new drugs and other inventions. Details from the campaign are here. This is a good start. My comment in the Huffington Post is here: John Edwards: Prizes, Not Patent Monopolies.