SCCR 31 Check out the Text for Broadcasting & Cablecasting Treaty

At the close of the last meeting (June 29 to July 3, 2015), the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) requested that the Chair prepare for its next session (December 7 to 11, 2015) a “consolidated text” with respect to 1) definitions, 2) object of protection, and 3) rights to be granted for the proposed treaty for the protection of broadcasting and cablecasting organizations.

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KEI’s Initial Comments on the MPP/BMS license to patents and know-how for daclatasvir (DCV)

KEI’s Initial Comments on the MPP/BMS license to patents and know-how for daclatasvir (DCV)

November 23, 2015

FYI: Contact: Andrew Goldman (andrew.goldman@keionline.org) or Zack Struver (zack.struver@keionline.org)

Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) notes the successful conclusion of negotiations between Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) and the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) for a royalty-free license and technology transfer agreement on daclatasvir (DCV), an important new medicine for the treatment of the hepatitis C virus (HCV), and offers comments on the agreement.

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23 November 2015: Opening statement of Asia and the Pacific Group at Tenth Session of WIPO Advisory Committee on Enforcement

The tenth session of the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) Advisory Committee on Enforcement (ACE) meets from Monday, 23 November 2015 to Wednesday, 25 November 2015.

As noted by WIPO, the

Advisory Committee on Enforcement (ACE) was established by the 2002 WIPO General Assemblies with a mandate to carry out technical assistance and coordination in the field of enforcement (norm-setting is explicitly excluded from the mandate).

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Dr. Margaret Chan: TPP may “close access to affordable medicines”

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan addressed civil society and policy-oriented “think tanks” on November 12, 2015, and “challenge[d]” them to “help with issues that keep me awake at night.” Specifically, she mentioned the problems with pharmaceutical patents, high drug prices as a barrier to access, and the current system of incentives for new drug innovation. Dr. Chan also raised concerns about the the TPP, which she said may raise drug prices and harm access to generics.

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WTO Decision on Least Developed Country (LDC) Drug Patent Waiver

For Immediate Release
3 November 2015
Contact: Zack Struver, +1 (202) 332-2670 or zack.struver@keionline.org

Geneva — The World Trade Organization is poised to announce this Friday its approval of a limited 17-year extension of a 2001 waiver of obligations in the TRIPS Agreement, set to expire at the end of this year, the terms of which exempt Least Developed Countries (LDCs) from requirements to grant patents or related intellectual property rights on pharmaceutical products.

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Harvard’s Oct. 23, 2015 forum on “Drug Pricing: Public Health Implications”

On October 23, 2015, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health hosted a forum titled “Drug Pricing: Public Health Implications,” that was moderated by Caroline Humer, a Reuters healthcare correspondent. The forum featured a panel of four individuals who work on drug pricing:

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Support for the Delinkage of the Costs of R&D and the Price of Medicines

The concept of delinkage refers to an model of incentivizing innovation in pharmaceutical research and development wherein the price of a medical technology is not linked to the cost of R&D. The application of delinkage in the medical technologies market has been gaining broad based support from NGOs, IGOs, and governments. Below are a selection of public statements, resolutions, bills, and papers that call for the need for delinkage in ensuring global access to medicines.

Endorsements by Governments

European Union:
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What’s wrong with current system of funding R&D, and what are ideas for reforms?

I was recently asked by OSF to write a two page document that described “what was wrong with the current system of funding R&D?” and to offer some “important ideas for change.” This was my two page submission.


What is wrong with the current system for funding R&D? What are the most important ideas for change?
(In two pages, for OSF meeting on drug development)

James Love
October 20, 2015

1. What is wrong with the current system for funding R&D?

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