Sally Susman of Pfizer leads the most lethal lobbying effort on drug patents and prices. She’s also a big Obama campaign fundraiser.
For several years, Pfizer has been considered a hardliner among big pharma companies on international negotiations over intellectual property rights and drug pricing. This has not changed despite the company having had three CEOs in the past five years.
The following information is taken directly from the World Trade Organization’s dispute settlement web page which reports that on 13 March 2012, Ukraine requested consultations with Australia under the WTO’s dispute settlement system with respect to Australia’s Tobacco Plain Packaging Bill 2011 which the WTO website noted imposes “trademark restrictions and other plain packaging requirements on tobacco products“.
This annotated bibliography of (mostly scholarly and technical) articles and books on innovation prizes is a work on progress. In the past few years, there has been an explosion of research on innovation inducement prizes, much of which has yet to be added to this list. People who want to suggest citations, annotations or corrections can send a note to james.love@keionline.org. More on prizes here: /prizes
The India Controller General Controller General of Patents, Designs & Trade Marks has just (March 12, 2012) issued an order granting a compulsory license to patents on the cancer drug sorafenib/Nexavar, in the matter of NATCO Vs. BAYER. A copy of the decision is attached below.
This intervention was delivered by India at today’s WTO Council for TRIPS during discussions of agenda item “N” on IP Enforcement Trends. The statement raises India’s concerns with plurilateral agreements like ACTA and TPPA and their potential impacts on public health, international exhaustion, border measures and digital goods and internet freedom.
IIPA Special 301 complaints regarding unauthorized copying of textbooks and other educational materials
USTR asked to use trade pressure to curtail unauthorized copying of educational materials
KEI’s comments on WIPO’s Development Agenda Project on Open Collaborative Development Models
Written comments of Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) regarding the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Taxonomy Analytical Study for the Project on Open Collaborative Projects and IP-Based Models (CDIP/8/INF/7)
21 February 2012
USPTO Holds Public Hearing on Genetic Diagnostic Testing
On February 16, 2012, the USPTO held a public hearing on genetic diagnostic testing, permitting stakeholders to present their views relating to DNA patents, exclusive licensing, patient health and genetic testing, particularly as they relate to secondary or confirmatory genetic diagnostic testing. Notes from the hearing and speaker statements are included below. KEI’s oral statement can be found here.
Who USTR clears to see secret text for IPR negotiations? (Such as TPPA)
In a meeting with USTR on February 15, 2012, KEI, MSF, Oxfam and Public Citizen pressed USTR to release the negotiating text for the intellectual property rights chapter in the TPPA trade agreement negotiation. USTR said the negotiation had “unprecedented” transparency, but maintained the text needed to be secret from the general public. USTR also claimed than no one on its many advisory boards, who are cleared to see the negotiating text, were lobbyists.
What we don’t know, and why, about incentives to stimulate biomedical R&D
This is an essay about strategic ignorance, as regards evidence relevant to policies that cost consumers and taxpayers billions of dollars.
The United States government grants 20 year patents on pharmaceutical drugs, and it also provides a growing number of other non-patent incentives and subsidies to stimulate R&D investments in new medicines. Are these incentives and subsidies necessary or cost effective? How would anyone know?
Here are some of the incentives we offer:
- Up to five year extensions of patents on pharmaceutical drugs.