EU Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan issues statement on European Union compulsory licensing in context of COVID-19, makes important statement about TRIPS Article 31bis

On 14 May 2020, Bernd Lange, Chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade (INTA) wrote a letter to Phil Hogan (Commissioner for Trade, European Commission) on the “commercial aspects of intellectual property rights for medical products in the… Continue Reading →

AstraZeneca, Pfizer, IFPMA on the WHO COVID-19 Pool at May 28, 2020 IFPMA Press Briefing

At a May 28,2020 press briefing organized by the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA), pharma CEOs and the IFPMA DG commented on the WHO proposal for a global pool for rights in technologies for the diagnosis, prevention… Continue Reading →

WHA73: Written statement of KEI – Agenda item 3 – Address by WHO Director-General devoted to the COVID-19 pandemic response in advance of the opening of the Health Assembly

KEI is an accredited non-state actor at the World Health Organization (WHO). This is our statement at the 73rd World Health Assembly. https://extranet.who.int/nonstateactorsstatements/meetingoutline/6 Knowledge Ecology International Meeting: Seventy-third World Health Assembly Written statements on COVID-19 pandemic The biggest question today… Continue Reading →

WHO member states poised to adopt weaker than needed COVID-19 resolution after tortuous negotiations

UPDATE: The World Health Organization has published the COVID-19 response resolution as a conference paper (A73/CONF./1) marked with the date of 18 May 2020. The sponsors of the draft resolution included: Albania, Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bhutan, Bolivia (Plurinational State… Continue Reading →

Patents related to PX-UV, an R2-D2 look-alike robot that may disinfect public spaces from SARS-CoV-2

Texas-based company Xenex Disinfection Services, a manufacturer of robots that reportedly removes the SARS-CoV-2 virus from public spaces, has been making news lately. One of their robots, which uses ultraviolet lights to kill viruses and bacteria in surfaces and look… Continue Reading →

14 May 2020 – The WHO Covid-19 Technology Pool: The solution to ensure global access to Covid-19 health technologies

Livestream here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNMpuQfH088 On 14 May 2020, Health Action International, Knowledge Ecology International, Medicines Law & Policy, Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation, and Wemos will convene a briefing entitled: “The WHO Covid-19 Technology Pool: The solution to ensure global access to Covid-19… Continue Reading →