The rollcall for the biosimilars vote in on the Internet here. Based upon the count released by the committee, voting for the Eshoo Amendment were 26 Democrats and 21 Republicans. Voting against were 1 republican (Deal) and 10 Democrats. One Republican did not vote. I have bolded the Nay votes.
Statement of James Love, Director of Knowledge Ecology International, on July 31, 2009 House vote on Eshoo/Barton Amendment on biosimilars.
In a roll call vote, the Eshoo/Barton amendment passed by a vote of 47 to 11. A number of consumer groups are issuing statements. This is the KEI statement on the vote.
James Love, Director Knowledge Ecology International (KEI),
(+1) (202) 361-3040, james.love@keionline.org
The Obama Administration, with the support of a Democrat-controlled U.S. Congress, is insisting the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiations be conducted in secret. We know, from documents obtained in Europe and the summaries released in April 2009, that the draft ACTA has sections that deal with both injunctions and damages. We don’t have the current text. Continue Reading
Find below Civil Society Coalition (CSC) written intervention to the 18th Session of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights. The intervention was submitted in Spanish by Pablo Lecuona, director and co-funder of Tiflolibros, a library for blinds in Argentina, and CSC fellow during the 18th Session of the WIPO SCCR.
Comentarios de la Civil Society Coalition (CSC)
Mi nombre es Pablo Lecuona y soy director y co-fundador de la biblioteca para ciegos, Tiflolibros en Argentina.
As candidates, almost all democrats have promised voters, in several elections, they will support parallel trade in pharmaceuticals from Canada and other high income countries. As elected officials, nothing happens. President Obama already has authority to permit imports of medicines, if he wanted to exercise it. But not only is the White House not fullfillinbg the promise to allow imports, it has promised the CEO of PhRMA and several big companies that they won’t allow parallel trade in the health reform bill.
The Center for American Progress hosted a video conference of Dr. Howard Dean talking about Health Care reform on Tueday. The video is on the web here. On this one hour program, Howard Dean spends a little over 3 minutes responding to allegations that he is a “shill” for BIO, on the issue of biosimilars.
The July 20, 2009 issue of BioCentury has an extensive report on the “Biosimilar fire Drill.” It discusses in detail the lobbying by the Biotechnology Industry Association (BIO, bio.org) to defeat efforts by President Obama, OMB, the FTC, Representative Waxman, Senator Brown, AARP, Public Citizen, PIRG, Consumers Union, KEI, Essential Action, and others, to reform the regulation to biologic medicines, so there is more generic competition. Continue Reading
Note: Only a portion of the speech is reproduced here.
Intervention by Hono’ble Minister of State for External Affairs, Smt. Preneet Kaur
Hon’ble Co-Chairs/Madam Moderator, Distinguished Delegates,
*The author thanks Professor Marc Perlman (Brown University) for his comprehensive notes on the IGC deliberations.