The following discusses the 2009 PhRMA submission for the USTR Special 301 list on Thailand. Thailand is one of three Asian countries (China, Philippines and Thailand) that were singled out by PhRMA for the harshest treatment. The submission on Thailand covers several topics, including these:
One of the more aggressive PhRMA submissions to the USTR Special 301 list is the section on the Philippines. Excerpts, which are given below, illustrate the breath of PhRMA’s demands on the USTR. Continue Reading
On 18 February 2009, sixteen NGOs sent a letter to the head of the World Trade Organization regarding a series of seizures by the Dutch custom authorities of generic medicines in transit to developing countries. The letter is available at
https://www.keionline.org/misc-docs/seizures/WTO_seizures_18feb.pdf
Today, Director General Pascal Lamy responded to the letter which is available at
On 3 March 2009, the following intervention was delivered by Ambassador Roberto Azevêdo, Permanent Representative of Brazil to the WTO and other economic organizations in Geneva.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
TRIPS Council
Agenda item ‘M’ – OTHER BUSINESS – Public Health dimension of TRIPS Agreement
Statement by Brazil
Mr. Chairman,
The following is the KEI letter to the US Department of Justice on the proposed merger between Ticketmaster and Live Nation.
February 25, 2009
US Department of Justice
Antitrust Division
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530
E-mail: antitrust.atr@usdoj.gov
Re: Opposition to Ticketmaster/Live Nation Merger
To whom it may concern:
Over the weekend, I looked at a small section of one of my bookshelf at home.
As in my previous blog, I wrote down the titles and author names for all of the books, and then checked on Bookshare.org to find out what is actually available for reading disabled persons. For purposes of this survey, I considered all books on Bookshare of “fair or above quality” (the lowest of 4 categories that include publisher’s quality, excellent and good), as “being available.”
Today, I checked the books on my bookshelves at work. I found 69 books. 9 of them are available in formats accessible to the reading disabled in the US and 1 is available to the print disabled worldwide.
February 19, 2009
Press Advisory on NGO letters to WHO and WTO on topic of Dutch seizures of generic medicines in-transit from India to Brazil, Colombia and Peru.
In response to news about four seizures of generic medicines manufactured in India and shipped through the Netherlands in route to Brazil, Colombia and Peru, sixteen public health, consumer and development NGOs have sent separate letters to the heads of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Trade Organization (WTO).
For more information, KEI general page on the Bayh Dole Act, or one of the mini Bayh-Dole timelines, such as the ones on transparency, march-in rights or royalty free uses. TIMELINE 1980 1980. October 21. Public Law 96-480. Stevenson-Wydler Technology… Continue Reading
There are plans for the next ACTA negotiation to take place in Rabat, Morocco. However, since none of the Obama trade people have been placed at USTR, this might be delayed.
The USTR is still maintaining secrecy over details of the negotiation, including the names of participants and all of the proposed texts for negotiations. Despite this, KEI has obtained some documents related to the negotiations. We can report the following: