The Fordham international IP conference just concluded a panel on patents for second uses of medical inventions, and the discussions illustrated once more the degree to which the patent system is poorly designed to address this issue.
These were my notes from my talk on Thursday morning at the annual Fordham International IP conference, which is organized by Professor Hugh Hansen. The panel was titled “Examination of TPP & TTIP.”
What is wrong with the TransPacific Partnership (TPP)?
The TPP was negotiated with asymmetric secrecy. Not from industry, but from the public. Nearly all of the real experts in IP policy were in the dark over the actual language of the texts. We delegated too much power to government trade negotiators and to lobbyists.
In a sternly worded letter dated 18 February 2016, the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), the National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC), the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (the Chamber) and the United States Council for International Business (USCIB) wrote Senator Orrin Hatch (Republican – Utah) expressing serious reservations with the United Nations High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines (UN HLP). Continue Reading
Sanofi $9.3 Billion Medivation Bid 28 April 2016. Ben Hirschler and Leigh Thomas. Sanofi launches $9.3 billion fight for U.S. cancer firm Medivation. Reuters. 28 April 2016. Helen Thomas. Sanofi / Medivation: Deal-Making Déjà Vu Comes With Added Competition. WSJ.… Continue Reading
This was the Wall Street Journal’s take on the Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health, two days after the agreement was reached:
CONTACT:
Zack Struver
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FOR RELEASE: MARCH 21, 2016
Non-Profit Groups Urge Obama Administration, NIH to Lower Price of Government-Funded, $129,000 Per Year Prostate Cancer Drug
The groups asked the National Institutes of Health to “take this opportunity to act” to lower the price of the prostate cancer drug Xtandi and show leadership on deterring discriminatory pricing practices.
On 17 March 2016, the UNICEF/UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) released a 76-page report entitled, Health Product Research & Development Fund: A Proposal for Financing and Operation.
On Monday, March 7, 2016, from 1:45 P.M. to 2:45 P.M., the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) met with invited stakeholders in a briefing at the White House on the Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances and the implementation package that was sent to Congress on February 29, 2016. The package was submitted for review to the Senate Foreign Relations and Judiciary Committees.
In early March 2016, the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) TRIPS Council discussed “Intellectual Property and Innovation: Education and Diffusion”. The following delegations co-sponsored discussion of this item on Education and Diffusion – Australia, European Union, Switzerland, United States, Japan, Singapore, Peru, Russian Federation, Chinese Taipei and Hong Kong China.
On Thursday, 11 February 2016, five groups including Knowledge Ecology International (KEI), Oxfam, Stop AIDS, Third World Network (TWN) and Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) sent a letter to Dr. Francis Gurry, Director-General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) highlighting our concerns with statements expressed by WIPO relating to the United Nations Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines (HLP). To date, we have yet to hear any formal response from WIPO. Continue Reading