One of the more aggressive PhRMA submissions to the USTR Special 301 list is the section on the Philippines. Excerpts, which are given below, illustrate the breath of PhRMA’s demands on the USTR. Continue Reading
In today’s Financial Times, Andrew Jack, Frances Williams and Michael Steen report on Dutch seizure of generic Abacavir in transit to Africa:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0a0a0a9e-0928-11de-b8b0-0000779fd2ac.html
Dozens of HIV patients have been placed at risk after the Dutch authorities seized consignments of Indian-made medicines shipped via Schipol airport for distribution to clinics in Nigeria, a multilateral agency yesterday said.
Today Pascal Lamy responded to a February 18, 2009 NGO letter that among other things requested he use his office to mediate the dispute regarding the European Union policy of seizing generic medicines that are in transit to developing countries. The original letter and Mr Lamy’s response are available here:
As an early proponent of the use of patent pools to expand access to medical technologies, our initial reaction to the GSK announcement is that GSK is responding to several new developments.
There are plans for the next ACTA negotiation to take place in Rabat, Morocco. However, since none of the Obama trade people have been placed at USTR, this might be delayed.
The USTR is still maintaining secrecy over details of the negotiation, including the names of participants and all of the proposed texts for negotiations. Despite this, KEI has obtained some documents related to the negotiations. We can report the following:
Judd Gregg will reportedly be appointed as Sec. of Commerce today.
Here a few data points on pharmaceutical issues.
Over the past several weeks there have been a several cases where some well motivated and knowledgeable persons about copyright policy have expressed criticism of an effort by WIPO to negotiate a treaty for persons who are blind or have other reading disabilities, on the grounds that this is not ambitious enough, and a larger all inclusive treaty on limitations and exceptions should be the target.
The following are KEI's January 26, 2009 remarks at the World Forum on Science and Democracy, held in Belém, Brasil, an event that is affiliated with the World Social Forum, which is also taking place in Belém the same week.
Jennea Ross’s December 28, 2008 report in the Minneapolis Star Tribune caught my eye:
Campuses across the state try new techniques and technology to fight soaring book prices.
One quote from the story follows:
Until this year, University of Minnesota students taking BioC-3021, a biochemistry class, paid $148 for a single, one-semester textbook.
Then professors got smart.
KEI filed comments on Friday on the FDA request for comments on the Priority Review Voucher.