In a roll call vote, the Eshoo/Barton amendment passed by a vote of 47 to 11. A number of consumer groups are issuing statements. This is the KEI statement on the vote.
James Love, Director Knowledge Ecology International (KEI),
(+1) (202) 361-3040, james.love@keionline.org
By James Love, on July 31st, 2009
On Thursday, July 30, 2009, the White House office of the United States Trade Representative denied release of 4 new proposals for text that were circulated in July to “all countries” in the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiations. The request was limited to documents that were prepared in the past 90 days for purpose of discussion at the July 2009 ACTA negotiating meeting held in Morocco.
USTR located 4 such documents, but denied the FOIA request under 5 USC 552(b)(1). The specific exception cited reads as follows:
The Obama Administration, with the support of a Democrat-controlled U.S. Congress, is insisting the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiations be conducted in secret. We know, from documents obtained in Europe and the summaries released in April 2009, that the draft ACTA has sections that deal with both injunctions and damages. We don’t have the current text. Continue Reading
Find below Civil Society Coalition (CSC) written intervention to the 18th Session of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights. The intervention was submitted in Spanish by Pablo Lecuona, director and co-funder of Tiflolibros, a library for blinds in Argentina, and CSC fellow during the 18th Session of the WIPO SCCR.
Comentarios de la Civil Society Coalition (CSC)
Mi nombre es Pablo Lecuona y soy director y co-fundador de la biblioteca para ciegos, Tiflolibros en Argentina.
Knowledge Ecology International written intervention to the 18th Session of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) thanks the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) and the Chair, Jukka Liedes, for affording KEI the opportunity to present our written comments on the subject of the future work of this Committee.
Here are links to the language adopted in the HELP committee, and the most recent version of the Eshoo/Barton proposal on biosimilars. In many areas, the Eshoo/Barton language is worse than the already bad bill adopted in the HELP committee.
As candidates, almost all democrats have promised voters, in several elections, they will support parallel trade in pharmaceuticals from Canada and other high income countries. As elected officials, nothing happens. President Obama already has authority to permit imports of medicines, if he wanted to exercise it. But not only is the White House not fullfillinbg the promise to allow imports, it has promised the CEO of PhRMA and several big companies that they won’t allow parallel trade in the health reform bill.
On July 22, 2009, eight public interest, consumer and public health organizations wrote to the United States Trade Representative (USTR), recommending the USTR and other federal agencies reduce secrecy and increase transparency in negotiations that involve global norms for knowledge… Continue Reading
The Center for American Progress hosted a video conference of Dr. Howard Dean talking about Health Care reform on Tueday. The video is on the web here. On this one hour program, Howard Dean spends a little over 3 minutes responding to allegations that he is a “shill” for BIO, on the issue of biosimilars.
According to data from OpenSecrets.Org, from 1992 to 2006, Pfizer gave 74 percent of its campaign contributions to Republicans. Since then, particularly after Hank McKinnell left as CEO, Pfizer is giving slightly more to democrats than to republicans. In the current cycle, 54 percent of contributions go to democrats. Continue Reading