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

Senator Bernie Sanders proposal to expand Veterans access to patented medical inventions

This is a video by Zack Struver about Senator Bernie Sander’s proposal to expand Veterans access to patented medical inventions. The video discusses both the proposal by Senator Sanders to give the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs the authority to use compulsory licenses on patents on medical inventions, including drugs, and the history of “government use” provisions in current U.S. statutes, including 28 U.S.C. 1498, which Sanders proposes modifying.

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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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