Briefing on Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performers

On Monday, March 7, 2016, from 1:45 P.M. to 2:45 P.M., the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) met with invited stakeholders in a briefing at the White House on the Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances and the implementation package that was sent to Congress on February 29, 2016. The package was submitted for review to the Senate Foreign Relations and Judiciary Committees.

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Congressman Doggett Voices Support for KEI/UACT Petition to NIH on Xtandi

On Monday, March 7, 2016, Congressman Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, issued a statement in support of the recent Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) and Union for Affordable Cancer Treatment (UACT) request that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) authorize the generic production of an expensive prostate cancer drug in order to curb an excessive and discriminatory price in the United States.

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KEI comments to the Senate Finance Committee Report on the Price of Sovaldi

On March 4, 2016, KEI provided comments to the US Senate Committee on Finance on a report prepared by staff for Senators Grassley and Wyden that was issued by the committee on December 2015, titled “The Price of Sovaldi and Its Impact on the U.S. Health Care System.” Senators Grassley and Wyden asked the public to comment on various issues raised in the report. The comments we filed on March 4 included three major sections.

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Colombia takes an important step in defining the public interest in compulsory licensing case

(More on Colombia here: /colombia)

Andrea Carolina Reyes Rojas informs us that a committee appointed to consider a request for a compulsory license on the leukemia drug Imatinib has decided that there are public interest reasons to do so.

A copy of the decision is available here. Andrew Goldman shares some thoughts and context here.

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2016: AltraTech, KEI comments on NIH proposal for exclusive licenses for vitro diagnostics patents

Other KEI comments on NIH licenses are found here: /nih-licenses

February 22, 2016

Patrick McCue, Ph.D.
Senior Licensing and Patenting Manager
Technology Advancement Office
The National Institutes of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
12A South Drive
Bethesda, MD 20892
via email: patrick.mccue@nih.gov

Dear Dr. McCue:

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Equitable Access Initiative (EAI), 1st intervention

I am in a meeting of the Equitable Access Initiative (EAI), which is considering new ways of measuring development and/or health needs, in the context of the priority setting by donors. I am a member of the Expert Panel, and this was my intervention in the morning session:

The presentations by John McArthur and Dominik Zotti were excellent, and the work of the four expert groups is a very useful contribution for those struggling with the challenge of setting priorities for aid.

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