The California Assembly Health Committee has published an analysis of AB463, the Pharmaceutical Cost Transparency Act of 2015. The bill will be marked up by the committee on Tuesday (April 21). The analysis was written by Dharia McGrew. It recommends three amendments to the bill, and provides a discussion of the benefits of the required disclosures, with context, and describes the support and opposition. The staff report is attached, and below is a list of 33 groups supporting and 22 opposing the bill. Continue Reading →
This is a bill that will see legislative action next week in California, and the bill has some momentum. This is the first time I have seen any government make an effort to have useful data on the economics drug drug development and pricing, and it provides a model that other governments may want to built upon.
A mark-up on the bill has been scheduled for Tuesday, April 21, 2015, in the Assembly Health Committee.
2013. Manon Anne Ress. Global Public Goods, transnational public goods: some definitions : How are global public goods defined? Definitions of ‘global public goods’ as outlined by major contributors to the international debate. (html)
Manon’s 2013 collection of quotes is very relevant, but here are some additional definitions. The discussions by Musgrave and Steiner are probably closer to how people actually define public or social goods in practice.
As part of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) technical assistance and capacity building program, on Thursday, 26 February 2015, the WTO Secretariat convened a Symposium on the TRIPS Agreement for TRIPS Council Members and Observers which brought together negotiators from the 1986–94 Uruguay Round to discuss how the Round introduced intellectual property norms into the architecture of the multilateral trading system. In addition, other experts were brought in to discuss what has happened since the introduction of the TRIPS Agreement, and what augurs for the future.
The Uruguay Round- The Glory Years, Source: World Trade Organization
On February 24, 2015, the USTR convened the Special 301 Review, taking testimony almost exclusively from witnesses representing large corporate rights holders. Over the course of the three-and-a-half hour hearing, groups such as Phrma, NAM, IPO, and the misleadingly-named Alliance for Fair Trade with India (an alliance comprised of groups such as Phrma, NAM, MPAA and many other similar groups) as well as foreign-owned multinational Bridgestone, pushed for the watch-listing of countries that fail to implement TRIPS+ measures. Continue Reading →
On Tuesday, 24 February 2015, Bangladesh, on behalf of the LDC Group, presented the submission of the LDC Group on an Extension of the Transitional Period Under Article 66.1 of the TRIPS Agreement for LDC Members for Certain Obligations with Respect to Pharmaceutical Products in the following impassioned statement.
ANY OTHER BUSINESS
EXTENSION OF THE TRANSITION PERIOD UNDER ARTICLE 66.1 OF THE TRIPS AGREEMENT FOR LEAST-DEVELOPED COUNTRY MEMBERS FOR CERTAIN OBLIGATIONS WITH RESPECT TO PHARMACEUTICAL PRODUCTS
The Human Rights Council’s 2015 Social Forum will take place from 18 February 2015 to 20 February 2015 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.
As requested by the Council in the above-mentioned resolution, the 2015 Social Forum will focus on “access to medicines in the context of the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, including best practices in this regard “. (Source: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Poverty/SForum/Pages/SForum2015.aspx).
