5 June 2012: India’s statement at WTO TRIPS Council: Exchange of information on securing supply chains against counterfeit goods
On 5 June 2012, India delivered the following intervention at the WTO Council for TRIPS on agenda item K, “Exchange of information on securing supply chains against counterfeit goods”.
Intervention on Agenda Item K(WHO donors) Gates Foundation, US, UK, Canada, Rotary Int., Norway and GAVI: Setting the agenda for global public health?
In preparation for the 65th World Health Assembly, held in Geneva from 21 May 2012 to 26 May 2012, the World Health Organization (WHO) prepared a document (A65/29 Add. 1, 5 April 2012) entitled “Voluntary contributions by fund and by donor for the financial period 2010-2011. Continue Reading
Recent ICE Press regarding counterfeit of pharmaceutical drugs
This is a rough list of the recent ICE press releases mentioning counterfeit and pharmaceutical. It is quite clear that the overwhelming majority of counterfeit busts involve Viagra and other erectile dysfunction drugs, a problem that will probably resolve itself once the Pfizer patents on Viagra expire.
In my quick read of the ICE press releases, I found just 12 pharmaceutical counterfeiting cases in the ICE press releases from 2009 to May 2012, with 14 defendants.
- 13 of the 14 defendants were men.
What’s a counterfeit? And how many counterfeit drugs are there?
Donald McNeil has an article in the New York Times that appeared in print on May 22, 2012 (page D6 of the New York edition) with the headline: “Malaria: Fake and Substandard Drugs Grow as Threat to Fight Disease.” A web version is available here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/22/health/policy/fake-and-substandard-drugs-grow-as-threat-to-fight-malaria.html
Medical Research and Development
The following are some areas of KEI research, analysis and advocacy as regards medical research and development. More details will be added later.
Costs of development of new drugs
Reform of Incentives to Stimulate R&D
KEI provides evaluation of various incentive measures, and proposes a variety of reforms, including but not limited to those that de-link R&D costs from product prices.
De-linkage of R&D costs from product prices.
KEI Statement on WHA resolution on Consultative Expert Working Group on Research and Development: Financing and Coordination
KEI Statement on World Health Assembly resolution on Consultative Expert Working Group on Research and Development: Financing and Coordination
A number of developing countries worked together to push the World Health Assembly to create a member state process to consider the implementation of the CEWG. The most important CEWG recommendations are to begin work on a new WHO Convention on R&D financing, and to de-link R&D costs from drug prices.
1 Open letter to those who collectively produced the May 23, 2012 statement to the WIPO SCP on the topics of patents and health
Open letter to those who collectively produced the May 23, 2012 statement to the WIPO SCP on the topics of patents and health (Copy of US statement available here: https://www.keionline.org/node/1416).
May 25, 2012
To each and everyone who worked on the SCP submission:
This letter outlines our concerns to the May 23, 2012 statement to the 18th Session of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP), on the agenda for patents and health.
In its opening, the USPTO said the following:
The WHA negotiations so far, on R&D financing
This is a brief note regarding the WHA negotiations on the proposed treaty for medical R&D, and in particular, the elements which deal with financing R&D. I’ll skip the history and earlier context of the negotiations, and focus on the main issues in play this week.
1 US statement to SCP 18 on the United States proposal on Patents and Health
The following is the statement read today by USPTO during a meeting of the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Patent, on the agenda item for patents and health. I’ll provide more commentary later, but in general, this was seen an aggressive attack on a proposal for work by the Development Agenda Group (DAG), and on the notion that countries should grant compulsory licenses on patents to address concerns over access or affordability of drugs.
[Update: KEI wrote to USPTO about the submission: /node/1420]
The USPTO statement follows:
SCP18Intervention of Chile at WIPO’s Standing Committee on the Law of Patents: Patents and Health
On Wednesday, 23 May 2012, Chile delivered the following statement on patents and health at the 18th session of the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP). In particular, Chile made a strong case for the WIPO SCP to study existing flexibilities in the international patent system. Continue Reading