In Poland, an Ambassador (and former George W Bush roommate) demolishes PhRMA’s 2009 Special 301 filing (Wikileaks cables)

From KEI staff review of Wikileaks cables (/wikileaks)

This cable signed by US Ambassador to Poland Victor H. Ashe provides a through and very tough critique of PhRMA’s submission to the 2009 Special 301 list. Ashe rejects every one of PhRMA’s main points, and explains why continually putting Poland on the Special 301 list is counter productive.

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Cable: US Government collaboration with drug companies to lobby the Finnish Parliament on drug pricing legislation

This July 9, 2008 cable concerns the collaboration between the US government and the pharmaceutical industry to lobby Finland on the pricing of pharmaceutical drugs. The cable was written by Michael A Butler, then the Deputy Chief of Mission in Helsinki, and is worth a read. Among other things, the cable says :

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Ambassador Clifford Sobel (photo from Wikimedia)

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New Zealand measures to prevent parallel trade in medicine from NZ to US

Wikileaks has published 28 cables, dated July 13, 2004 to February 9, 2010, from the US Embassy in Wellington, New Zealand that mention pharmaceuticals (See list here: /node/1231)

One of the cables discusses in detail the efforts of the New Zealand government to prevent pharmaceutical products that are sold in New Zealand from being parallel traded into the U.S. market. There are several interesting points made in the cable. Here are a few highlights:

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Wikileaks cables on the US opposition to Philippines legislation on affordable medicines

From KEI staff review of Wikileaks cables (/wikileaks)

From September 19, 2005 to January 15, 2010, the US Department of State sent dozens of cables from Manila reporting on disputes in the Philippines regarding IPR and the pricing of pharmaceutical drugs. Much of the U.S. advocacy in the Philippines was done in close cooperation with Pfizer.

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Implementing the Jordan FTA rules on exclusive rights in regulatory test data

September 2, 2011
From KEI staff review of Wikileaks cables (/wikileaks)

On August 30, 2011, Wikileaks published a December 19, 2005 cable written by Daniel Rubinstein. The cable illustrates the degree to which the U.S. Department of State monitors the implementation of the Jordan-US FTA agreement, as regards disputes over rules on data exclusivity.

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2008 May 14 Cable: Poland wants to cap drug cost effectiveness at 3x GDP/pop. Pfizer wants 6x

September 3, 2011 From KEI staff review of Wikileaks cables (/wikileaks) On May 14, 2008, The US Embassy in Warsaw sent a cable that discussed additions to the list of pharmaceutical products reimbursed by the government. A few highlights from… Continue Reading

SCO loses appeal in dispute with Novell over copyright claims to code used in Linux operating system

As reported by Groklaw, SCO has lost an appeal, at the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a dispute with Novell “over copyright ownership of early versions of the UNIX operating system and the scope of Novell’s rights in licenses issued to its former customers prior to its partial sale of UNIX to SCO.” According to Groklaw, this is likely to be the end of the litigation with Novell over SCO’s claims to ownership of code used in Linux. (The IBM case is still outstanding, it seems).

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