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). Last week, the WTO TRIPS Council was unable to resolve a dispute over the waiver between the United States and LDCs. The United States told negotiators it would only agree to extend the current waiver — which expires January 1, 2016 — on a temporary basis. Ambassador Michael Punke claimed that the U.S. was motivated in part because it failed to “deliver” on industry-favored pharmaceutical provisions in the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
More information on the LDC request, including KEI briefings, press releases, and blogs; news reports; and statements by other NGOs, is available here.