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

Innogenetics v. Abbott – 2008 compulsory license granted for HCV genotyping kits under eBay v. MercExchange

This is an update to a 2007 report regarding a district court decision in the Innogenetics v. Abbott case here, regarding Abbott’s infringement of Innogenetics’s patents for HCV genotyping. The previous blog discusses the ruling at the district court level… Continue Reading

18 members of the House of Representatives call for compulsory license on patents for HCV treatments

Representative Ro Khanna (D-CA-17) was joined by 17 other members of Congress in calling upon Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to issue a compulsory license on patents for medications to treat hepatitis C, by exercising 28… 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

Chilean Cámara de Diputados Votes Overwhelmingly To Proceed With Compulsory Licenses for HCV Drugs

The Cámara de Diputados of the Chilean Congress has overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling on the President to advance the compulsory licensing request on HCV drugs made in March 2017 by patients, advocates including Innovarte NGO, and elected officials. The resolution, Number… Continue Reading

Sanders offers amendment to create compulsory licenses on medical inventions, for veterans

On Wednesday, July 22, 2015, the Senate Veterans Committee held a mark-up to consider several bills. During the mark-up, Senator Sanders offered an amendment, attached below, that would create a compulsory license mechanism in the Department of Veterans Affairs, for patents on medical inventions. (See amendment text below). The motivation for the amendment was a crisis in the VA involving access to drugs for the hepatitis C virus (HCV).

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Letter from Senator Bernie Sanders to the VA, asking for compulsory licenses on Hepatitis C drugs.

Attached is the text of a letter sent by Senator Bernie Sanders to Robert A. McDonald, the Secretary, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, asking the Secretary “to use your authority as Secretary of Veterans Affairs to break the patents on Hepatitis C medications for the treatment of veterans suffering with the disease.”

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