I was recently asked the following question:
Jamie
What is your view on the treatment of prize funds? By all standards it is treated as a radical off the wall proposal when in fact it is market based. Why is there so much resistance?
My response was as follows:
The World Health Assembly (WHA) has just adopted a new resolution on the “Establishment of a Consultative Expert Working Group on Research and Development: Finance and Coordination.” The resolution is just over 4 pages. It represents a dramatic response to the earlier WHO Expert Working Group (EWG), by
Last evening the Global Health Council (GHC) and the Global Health Forum (GHF) co-hosted an event on funding R&D for neglected diseases. The event was one of several hosted by the GHC at the posh Intercontinental Hotel.
A “proposal” for PDP funding was presented by Novartis, IAVI and Mary Moran. Called PDP+, it was an attempt to “merge” three different proposals that were endorsed by the WHO Expert Working Group (EWG).
On April 21, 2010, an official version of the consolidated negotiating text of the proposal Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) was published. Next Wednesday, April 28, 2010, the Trans-Atlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD) will host a series of roundtable discussions about the new ACTA text at the US Department of commerce, Washington, DC from 9am to 3pm.
This is an important statement by Senator Ron Wyden, the Chair of the Senate Subcommittee on International Trade, Customs and Global Competitiveness. He mentions the importance of transparency in giving the public an opportunity to “understand and shape” the agreement, and he warns that a “poorly constructed agreement could be harmful to consumers’ ability to use the Internet and could stifle the type of innovation needed to create new American jobs.”
Today the first public draft of the ACTA text was released. A copy is available here. Earlier leaked versions of the text, which include country positions, are the January 18, 2010 consolidated text, a February 2010 EU memorandum of the selected sections, and seven documents from 2008.
On April 28, TACD will be holding a meeting from 9 am to 3 pm at the U.S. Department of Commerce, in Washington, DC, to discuss the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).
KEI has issued a new research note, Comments on ACTA Provisions on Injunctions and Damages, KEI Research Note 2010:1, dated April 6, 2010.
In looking at how enforcement norms are being changed in ACTA, it is helpful to review the enforcement chapter of NAFTA.
Just in case anyone does not appreciate how difficult it will be to change the USTR direction on ACTA, note that today the USTR proudly put this letter on the USTR Blog:
http://www.ustr.gov/about-us/press-office/blog/2010/march/new-information-ustrgov/acta
(Maybe best to first skip down to see who signed it).
March 22, 2010
The Honorable Barack Obama
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20500