On Friday, 18 October 2019, South Africa delivered the following statement at the WTO TRIPS Council on transparency of R&D Costs and Pricing of Medicines and Health Technology. Intellectual Property and the Public Interest: R&D Costs and Pricing of Medicines… Continue Reading
On Friday, 4 October 2019, the World Trade Organization (WTO) published a submission by the Republic of South Africa on “R&D Costs and Pricing of Medicines and Health Technologies” (IP/C/W/659). In this paper, South Africa requested the WTO TRIPS Council… Continue Reading
(UPDATE: As noted in the comments below, the NIH provided a response to the joint comments submitted on September 5, 2019, well in advance of the close of the comment period on September 15, 2019) On September 19, 2019, Knowledge… Continue Reading
UPDATE: On 29 July 2019, the co-facilitators (Ambassadors of Georgia and Thailand) of the intergovernmental consultations on a UN political declaration on universal health coverage announced that the silence procedure was broken by “several delegations on paragraphs 29, 68, 69,… Continue Reading
On July 22, 2019, Knowledge Ecology International submitted a letter to the US House of Representative’s Committee on Oversight and Reform regarding the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) lack of transparency in its exclusive licensing processes. Prior to executing an… Continue Reading
On Thursday, 11 July 2019, the 41st session of the Human Rights Council (HRC) adopted, without a vote, resolution A/HRC/41/L.13, “Access to medicines and vaccines in the context of the right of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental… Continue Reading
At the 41st session (24 June 2019 – 12 July 2019) of the Human Rights Council, a bloc of countries known as the the Core Group (Brazil, China, Egypt, Indonesia, India, Senegal, South Africa and Thailand) have circulated a resolution… Continue Reading
On Monday, 24 June 2019, Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) delivered this opening statement at WIPO’s 30th Session of the Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP). The Committee elected a new chair, Sarah Whitehead, United Kingdom of Great Britain… Continue Reading
Today the World Health Assembly (WHA) approved A72/A/CONF./2 Rev.1 as a resolution, titled “Improving the transparency of markets for medicines, vaccines, and other health products.” Link to the resolution: http://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/WHA72/A72_ACONF2Rev1-en.pdf When the text was made available, I sent out a… Continue Reading
One of the reasons why drug companies have fought so hard to block transparency of clinical trial costs is the growing gap between what the public had been told those costs are, and the actual costs, particularly for treatments for… Continue Reading