Pfizer’s efforts to block Colombia’s accession to the OECD in 2017-2018

The following PDF file includes several email exchanges between Pfizer and USTR regarding Colombia’s accession to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Pfizer proposed several conditions it wanted Colombia to agree to before the US would withdraw objections… Continue Reading

30+ Civil Society Orgs to USTR: Stop Threatening to Block Colombia’s OECD Accession over Pharma/Biotech Lobby Interests

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 20, 2018 kim.treanor@keionline.org (202)-332-2670 A broad international coalition of over 30 human rights organizations, including some across the United States and Latin America, have come together to ensure that providing access to health care doesn’t come… Continue Reading

13 NGOs Call on USTR To Support Colombia in Special 301 Following Pressure Over Legal Access to Meds Efforts

KEI submitted a post-hearing submission to the USTR for the Special 301 on behalf of itself and twelve other international NGOs and academic institutions condemning recent pressures on Colombia’s legal and regulatory measures to increase access to affordable medicines, including… Continue Reading

Latin America, compulsory licensing

Brazil 1990-2000 Comments for the Working Group On Intellectual Property Rights, Third Trade Ministerial and Americas Business Forum, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, May 13-16,1997, 1997-05-16 2005 U.S. DoS Cable: U.S. PHARMA FIRMS THREATENED WITH LICENSING (Brazil), June 3, 2005. U.S. DoS… Continue Reading

Colombia, compulsory licensing

2008 Colombian Submission to the WHO IGWG negotiation, 2008-03-07 2015 Switzerland pressures Colombia to deny compulsory license on imatinib, 2015-08-17 2016 Colombia takes an important step in defining the public interest in compulsory licensing case, 2016-03-04 Colombia Technical Committee Recommends… Continue Reading

Sens. Sherrod Brown and Bernie Sanders send letter to USTR condemning pressure on Colombia compulsory license for cancer drug

(More on Colombia here: /colombia)

In response to reports of USTR pressure on Colombia’s potential compulsory license for imatinib, Senators Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., have sent a letter to USTR objecting “to any efforts to protect the public health of Colombians in a way that is appropriate, effective, and consistent with the country’s trade and public health obligations,” and condemning as unconscionable “that any representatives of the U.S. government would threaten to rescind funding for Colombia’s peace iniative if a compulsory license for Glivec were issued.” Continue Reading

Letter from KEI, Public Citizen, Oxfam America and Health GAP to Senator Hatch, regarding Colombia Compulsory License

Attached is a letter that KEI, Public Citizen, Oxfam America and Health GAP have sent to Senator Hatch, via the Senate Finance Committee, objecting to the pressure his office has put on Colombia over a compulsory license on patents held by Novartis for the cancer drug Gleevec. This refers to the accounts of pressure from Hatch’s office that are described in two letters from the Colombia Embassy in Washington, dated April 27 and April 28, which were recently leaked. Continue Reading