On October 12, 2009, the “Industry Government Forum on Access to Medicines” (IGFAM) was launched. The UK Minister for International Development, MP Mike Foster made a a speech to launch this initiative which is reproduced below.
Presentations were also made by Pfizer (Ponni Subbiah), GSK (Abbas Hussain), Rajiv Venkayya (Gates Foundation), Prashant Yadav (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Suerie Moon (Research Fellow and Doctoral Candidate, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University).
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The Wellcome Trust convened an “Opinion Formers Conference” on “Counterfeit Medicines: Perspectives and Action” on Monday 26 October 2009. Continue Reading →
KEI, Richard Stallman, ORG, letter to European Commission opposing Oracle acquisition of MySQL assets from Sun The following is a letter that KEI, Richard Stallman and ORG have sent to the European Commission, asking the European Commission to prevent Oracle… Continue Reading →
110th CONGRESS, 1st Session
S. 2210
To provide incentives for investment in research and development for new medicines, to enhance access to new medicines, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
October 19, 2007
Mr. SANDERS introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
A BILL
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The following are some listserves run by KEI:
- A2K : Access to Knowledge
- IP-Health : Intellectual Property Rights and Healthcare
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On November 4-6, 2009, the next round of negotiations for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Negotiations (ACTA) will take place in Seoul, Korea. The following is another strange chapter in the secrecy surrounding this negotiation.
Background
Since ACTA was first announced, KEI has pressed the negotiating governments to provide more transparency, including recently, for example
In discussions about a possible WIPO Treaty for persons who are blind or have other reading disabilities, there have been suggestions by some that voluntary licensing by rights holders presents a sufficient solution to the problem. I studied several publications since 1985 to take a closer look at this viewpoint and find out what were the common perceptions.
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USTR head Ambassador Ron Kirk made another speech on intellectual property on September 30, 2009. The text of his speech is here. Below are a few relevant quotes.
On access to medicine:
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This is a work in progress
1824
Louis Braille invented a system of reading and writing by means of raised dots.
1921
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