The negotiators have finally released, for the first time, TPP text, which is on the web here.
Despite assurances from the contrary by Australia and USTR, intellectual property is a covered asset subject to Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS):
Article 9.1: Definitions
For the purposes of this Chapter:
. . .
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For Immediate Release
3 November 2015
Contact: Zack Struver, +1 (202) 332-2670 or zack.struver@keionline.org
Geneva — The World Trade Organization is poised to announce this Friday its approval of a limited 17-year extension of a 2001 waiver of obligations in the TRIPS Agreement, set to expire at the end of this year, the terms of which exempt Least Developed Countries (LDCs) from requirements to grant patents or related intellectual property rights on pharmaceutical products.
As candidates consider parallel trade in pharmaceutical drugs, a practice blocked by Obama during his presidency, here is how common it is in Europe, where it is regulated and mainstream, as reported in the EFPIA publication, the Pharmaceutical Industry in Figures. Key data, 2015.
On October 23, 2015, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health hosted a forum titled “Drug Pricing: Public Health Implications,” that was moderated by Caroline Humer, a Reuters healthcare correspondent. The forum featured a panel of four individuals who work on drug pricing:
Six NGOs — including Oxfam America, Health GAP, Knowledge Ecology International (KEI), the Union for Affordable Cancer Treatment (UACT), the Young Professionals Chronic Disease Network (YP-CDN), and Public Citizen — sent a letter to President Obama today asking him to publicly express the United States’ “full and unconditional support” for the waiver of World Trade Organization (WTO) drug patent rules for Least Developed Countries (LDCs). Continue Reading
On the left, the people in the Obama Administration trying to block a permanent waiver of WTO drug patent obligations for Least Developed Countries (as defined by the UN). On the right, some people living in least developed countries.
 Ambassador Michael Forman. Head of USTR. Alma maters: Princeton, Oxford and Harvard Law. Formerly ran a hedge fund for Citibank. Continue Reading Commentary on the WTO negotiations over waiver of drug patents for Least Developed Countries (LDCs)Below you will find a collection of articles in the press and commentary by KEI relating to the request for LDC patent exemption on pharmaceutical products at the WTO. KEI commentary WTO TRIPS Council (October 2015) to discuss LDC extension for pharmaceuticals, non-violation, review of the Paragraph 6 systemThe WTO TRIPS Council meets from Thursday, 15 October 2015 to Friday, 16 October 2015. The hot topics for consideration include agenda item 13 (Request from the LDC Group for an indefinite exemption from WTO IP obligations to provide patents for pharmaceutical products, agenda item 8 (non-violation and situation complaints), agenda item 7 (Review of the Paragraph 6 system) and agenda item 14 (a discussion item co-sponsored by Australia, the European Union and the United States on “Intellectual Property and Innovation: Entrepreneurialism and New Technologies).
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