1 December 2015
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP 23)
KEI Statement on Patents and Health
Thank you Madame Chair
Nestled at the end Intellectual Property Watch’s (IP-Watch) brilliant reportage of a US Chamber of Commerce event – “Has the Sun Set on Multilateral Rulemaking on IP?” – is a quote by Patrick Kilbride (Executive Director, U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global IP Center) praising the efforts of the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in WTO negotiations on the LDC waiver for pharmaceutical products.
IP-Watch reported,
JOINT NGO STATEMENT
TRIPS Council Decision On Extension of the Transition Period Concerning Pharmaceutical Products
(PDF copy available here)
Today (6th November), the WTO-TRIPS Council adopted a decision granting Least Developed Countries (LDCs) an exemption from patents and test data protection for pharmaceutical products for a duration of 17 years.
The negotiators have finally released, for the first time, TPP text, which is on the web here.
Despite assurances from the contrary by Australia and USTR, intellectual property is a covered asset subject to Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS):
Article 9.1: Definitions
For the purposes of this Chapter:
. . .
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The concept of delinkage refers to an model of incentivizing innovation in pharmaceutical research and development wherein the price of a medical technology is not linked to the cost of R&D. The application of delinkage in the medical technologies market has been gaining broad based support from NGOs, IGOs, and governments. Below are a selection of public statements, resolutions, bills, and papers that call for the need for delinkage in ensuring global access to medicines.
European Union:
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I was recently asked by OSF to write a two page document that described “what was wrong with the current system of funding R&D?” and to offer some “important ideas for change.” This was my two page submission.
What is wrong with the current system for funding R&D? What are the most important ideas for change?
(In two pages, for OSF meeting on drug development)James Love
October 20, 20151. What is wrong with the current system for funding R&D?
On 9 October 2015, Wikileaks released the final text of the IP chapter in the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Jamie Love provided comments via twitter.
https://twitter.com/jamie_love
Updated: 9 October 2015
(In the order posted)
Knowledge Ecology International sent letters today (attached to this release), September 21, 2015, to the Office of the General Counsel to the United States Trade Representative (USTR) and the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Commerce, asking that they investigate USTR and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for the potential violation of an Executive Order issued by Bill Clinton — which prohibits the use of trade pressures to hinder polices related to access to HIV/AIDS medicines in sub-Saharan Africa — in their attempt to stop a request by Least Develop Continue Reading
On Friday, 11 September 2015 five public interest groups (Health GAP, Knowledge Ecology International, Médecins Sans Frontières, Oxfam America and Public Citizen) sent a letter to Ambassador Michael Froman (United States Trade Representative) and Michelle Lee, (Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office) requesting that the Obama administration disclose its position on the LDC request for an extension of their pharmaceutical production transition period under the WTO TRIPS Agreement.
These were comments KEI provided to the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP), for its consultation on expanding the mandate to include drugs to treat the hepatitis C virus.
To: consultation@medicinespatentpool.org.
Date: August 28, 2015
Re: Comments by James Love on behalf of KEI for the consultation regarding the MPP mandate to expand into HCV (and other diseases).
KEI has submitted joint comments with UAEM in this consultation. Here on behalf of KEI I make a few additional points.