WTO TRIPS Council: Canada’s defence of ACTA in discussions of “Trends in Enforcement”
On Tuesday, 25 October 2011, Canada made the following intervention at the WTO TRIPS Council on ACTA under agenda item O, “Trends in Enforcement”.
In relation to the WTO Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health, Canada asserted the following,
ACTA is also consistent with the TRIPS Agreement and the Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health and will not hinder the cross-border transit of legitimate generic medicines.
US Copyright Office 17 priorities
Register of Copyrights Maria A. Pallante has made public the “priorities and special projects” of the US Copyright Office from October 2011 to October 2013. The ambitious work plan sets 17 priorities in the areas of copyright policy and administrative practices, and 10 special projects “to improve the quality and efficiency of the U.S. Copyright Office’s services.”
The 16 page document is available here
Comments should be sent to registerofcopyrights@copyright.govHere’s a quick outline:
3 Studies
WTO TRIPS Council: India raises concerns on ACTA and TPPA on discussion of “Trends in the Enforcement of IPRs”
On 25 October 2011, India delivered the following intervention at the WTO TRIPS Council raising concerns on ACTA and the TPPA during discussions of “Trends in the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights”. On ACTA, India voiced concerns on the scope of ACTA’s civil enforcement measures, border measures potential role in the seizure of generic medicines, third party liability, damages and also raised systemic issues such as how WTO MFN obligations would affect WTO members who are not ACTA parties,
WTO TRIPS Council: India questions the United States on eBay v. MercExchange precedent as alternative to Paragraph 6 mechanism
On 25 October 2011, the WTO TRIPS Council held its annual review of the Paragraph 6 System. The following are extracts from the intervention of India. Note that under “Any alternatives to the use of Paragraph 6 System to achieve the objective of access to medicines” India asked the United States to shed light on state practice in the US following the US Supreme Court’s eBay versus MercExchange ruling (/content/view/174/1). Continue Reading
Recent cancer drug prices
2010
April 29, 2010.
Brand name: Provenge
Generic name: Sipuleucel-T
Marketed by: Dendreon
Indication: therapy for certain men with advanced prostate cancer that uses their own immune system to fight the disease.
FDA press release here.
US Price: $31,000 per infusion. A full course of treatment is three infusions over a one-month period, or $93k.
Continue ReadingUSPTO issued patents mentioning ritonavir in a patent claim
This note begins by looking at patents issued by the USPTO that specifically mention the term ritonavir in the patent claims, or mention the NIH contract that was used to fund the early development of the product. This includes 194 patents that cite ritonavir in the patent claims, and another 42 patents that cite the NIH contact that funded the early ritonavir work. We also provide quotes from an August 19, 2011 WIPO report on the patent landscape for ritonavir that found 805 patent families related to ritonavir.
TRIPS Council (24-25 Oct 2011) will discuss Para 6 implementation, Australia’s tobacco plain packaging bill 2011 and enforcement
The following WTO airgram WTO/AIR/3815/REV.1 contains the agenda for the upcoming WTO Council for TRIPS meeting to be held in Geneva from Monday, 24 October 2011 to Tuesday, 25 October 2011. Paragraph 3 and agenda items G, N and O will be of interest to readers of this blog. It should be noted that in the original document, the text is capitalized. Item G covers Review under Paragraph 8 of the Decision on the implementation of Paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health. Continue Reading
Coverage of persons living with HIV included in Gilead MPP Licenses
To better understand the benefits of the Gilead/MPP licenses, I have made some calculations of the persons living with HIV that are covered in the geographic areas of the various Gilead/MPP licenses.
- TDF/FTC territories
- COBI territories
- EVG-Quad territories
KEI comments on the ITPC Letter to the Medicines Patent Pool Foundation and UNITAID
The following excerpts are from an exchange of messages on ip-health about a recent recent petition regarding the patent pool that has been posted to several public health email lists. Among the leaders in the petition are apparently ITPC and the New York based I-MAK. ITPC has a long history of advocating for the interests of persons living with HIV, and I-MAK has for many years sought to overcome patent barriers for access to medicines. A copy of the petition is here http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/mppunitaid.
UNITAID 3rd Consultative Forum; Nineteen IP recommendations
On 4-5 October 2011, UNITAID held its third Consultative Forum giving stakeholders the opportunity to view UNITAID’s achievements to date as well as provide input on UNITAID’s activities moving forward. Attendees at the forum included civil society, NGOs, implementing partners, representatives from the pharmaceutical industry and private foundations, and governmental officials. Several of the presentations from the IP workshop as well as the recommendations from the IP workshop are attached below.