KEI asks WHO to include risdiplam, treatment for Spinal Muscular Atrophy, on the Essential Medicines List (EML)
Roche
KEI letter to Roche requesting voluntary license to patents on risdiplam, a treatment for Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA)
risdiplam
Risdiplam, originally developed under contract with the SMA Foundtion by PTC therapuetics and licensed to Roche for sale under the brand name Evrysdi, is a medication used to treat spinal muscular atrophy and the first oral medication approved to treat… Continue Reading
Access to SMA therapy: Iman’s Story
Recent years have seen several blockbuster treatments enter the market, many rooted in publicly funded foundational and pre-clinical research, and benefiting from government subsidies. In particular, we have conducted extensive research on Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), which has regularly hit… Continue Reading
COVID-19 Contracts
United States of America Below are links to copies of the contracts entered into by the US government for technologies to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. KEI is updating this page as we gain access to more contracts, and less redacted… Continue Reading
KEI Research Note 2020:2 Role of Private Sector, Governments and Charities in Funding Research and Development Related to Tocilizumab
KEI Research Note 2020:2 Role of Private Sector, Governments and Charities in Funding Research and Development Related to Tocilizumab Luis Gil Abinader, May 28, 2020. From the Introduction: The funding of R&D for tocilizumab can be described as having three… Continue Reading
KEI Research Note 2020:1 Government funding related to the cobas Liat Analyzer PCR testing device
KEI Research Note 2020:1 Government funding related to the cobas Liat Analyzer PCR testing device. Luis Gil Abinader, April 22, 2020. Introduction Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing technique Automatization of the PCR testing technique SARS-Cov-2 emergency use authorizations for PCR… Continue Reading
Verinata v. Ariosa – compulsory license granted to Roche over prenatal screening technologies under eBay v. MercExchange
On July 19, 2018, the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, denied a permanent injunction requested by Illumina, Inc, and instead ruled that a forward looking royalty for continued non-voluntary use of the invention, a type of compulsory license,… Continue Reading
Several march-in and royalty free rights cases, under the Bayh-Dole Act
Bayh-Dole cases involving royalty free or march-in rights 1997 Cellpro case This was a strong case involving two competing medical devices, both invented on NIH grants, and a bad ending. The NIH rejection of the Cellpro march-in request led to… Continue Reading
DG-Enterprise – data exclusivity prevents access to life saving drugs (in the EU), even in an emergency situation
On February 20, 2006, Martin Terberger, the Head of Unit for Pharmaceuticals in the European Commission Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry, wrote to Greg Perry of the European Generic medicines Association (EGA). The letter was a follow-up to an inquiry from the EGA regarding “the question of data exclusivity under the European pharmaceutical legislation,” in cases where a government overrode the exclusive rights of a patent and granted a compulsory license, and/or in a case of a medical emergency.