The United States, on behalf of Group B (which includes Western European countries, Norway, the United States, Switzerland, Japan, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Turkey, Israel and the Holy See) presented the following statement opposing the adoption of the African Group/Development Agenda Group on patents and health (in its current forum). In its individual intervention, the Holy See supported the African Group/Development Agenda Group proposal.
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On December 1, 2011, Senator Sanders (I-VT) sent a letter to United States Trade Representative, Ambassador Kirk, objecting to USTR’s position with regard to access to medicines in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) and the apparent retreat from the May 10th Agreement. Senator Sanders also objects to the secrecy of the negotiations and calls for the public release of the TPPA negotiating texts. Continue Reading →
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.
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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 →
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.
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Two areas where ACTA is inconsistent with US law, injunctions and damages
KEI Policy Brief, 2011:2
30 September 2011, revised 3 October 2011
James Love and Krista Cox
As the U.S. is reportedly about to sign ACTA, we wanted to point out two important areas where ACTA is not consistent with U.S. law. These are the sections of ACTA dealing with injunctions and damages. Below we have included the text from ACTA and the WTO TRIPS agreement on these two topics.
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Brazil’s general statement to the WIPO General Assembly in 2011 was delivered on Monday, 26 September 2011 by HE Roberto Azevedo, Permanent Representative of Brazil to the WTO and other Economic Organizations in Geneva. With respect to a disabilities treaty, Brazil stated,
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The following intervention was delivered today by H.E. Alfredo Suescum, Ambassador of the Permanent Mission of Panama to the WTO on behalf of of the Group of Latin American and Caribbean countries (GRULAC). With respect to a disabilities treaty, GRULAC noted:
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Blogs and articles by KEI
- April 22, 2011. Six NGOs present recommendations for Moscow WHO forum on non-communicable diseases. /node/1118
- September 10, 2011. Krista Cox, Obama Administration Wants to Eliminate References to Doha Declaration in UN Political Declaration on Non-Communicable Diseases. KeiOnline.Org, https://www.keionline.org/node/1252
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As the UN meets to discuss non-communicable diseases, one area of controversy is the effort by White House trade officials and the European Commissioner for Trade to block any mention in a Political Declaration of the November 14, 2001 WTO Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health.
This note explains why the Doha Declaration was important, and what USTR and DG-Trade are trying to do in the NCD resolution. I will start with a very quick history of the events that led to the 2001 WTO resolution.
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