*(The author thanks Mirza Alas and Alexandre Gajardo for their notes of the 2nd round of informal consultations held on 22 June 2016 and Sophia Simon for transcribing the statements delegations made during the plenary discussions held on 1 July 2016.)
30 June 2016
By Sophia Simon
The World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP) plays a significant role as the United Nation’s only dedicated, multilateral forum for the discussion on patents. The WIPO SCP convened for its 24th session in Geneva from 27 June 2016 to 30 June 2016.
On Wednesday morning, 29 June 2016, Nigeria, on behalf of the African Group, presented a revised proposal (SCP/24/4) for a WIPO work program on Patents and Health at the Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP). The African Group proposal is a welcome breath of fresh air in the patent committee; the proposal aims to make WIPO more responsive to recent developments including: 1) “Challenges to public health …. Continue Reading
29 June 2016
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (24th session)Statement of Knowledge Ecology International: Patents and Health
Briefing Call on National Institutes of Health (NIH) patent policies, 29 June 2016, 11:00 A.M. (EST)
KEI will host a conference call at 11:00 A.M. today to brief interested stakeholders and the press on issues related to NIH patent policy, including the recent decision in KEI’s Xtandi petition (additional background here: /xtandi), the grant of exclusive licenses on government-owned inventions (/nih-licenses), and transparency of decision-making at NIH more broadly.
For call-in information, please contact Zack Struver at zack.struver@keionline.org. Continue Reading
SCP24: KEI statement on exceptions and limitations to patent rights
SCP24
27 June 2016
KEI statement on exceptions and limitations to patent rights
In relation to limitations and exceptions, we recall Brazil’s prescient submission, document SCP/14/7 (tabled in January 2010) which called attention to the lack of policy coherence in a world where in certain international fora, countries endorse the use of compulsory licensing to promote access to medicines for all, and in separate fora, criticize developing countries for actually considering or issuing such compulsory licenses.
Gates Foundation v. Teachscape: Restrictions on Patenting of Gates-Funded Inventions
In the wake of the NIH’s letter to KEI declining to use the government’s rights in the federally-funded patents on Xtandi under the Bayh Dole Act, it is interesting to consider that even the Gates Foundation, hardly the anti-patent group, maintains certain programs and policies to ensure that Gates-funded inventions are used for charitable purposes, with limitations on pricing.
S. Ward Casscells, Pentagon Medical Chief, Praised Army Role in Xtandi Development
Dr. S. Ward Casscells took the stage at the 2011 Innovative Minds in Prostate Cancer Today (IMPaCT) Meeting as a prostate cancer patient, a doctor, an Army Reserve colonel, and the former top doctor for the Pentagon. There, he praised the central role of the Department of Defense in bringing important prostate cancer medicines to market, including Xtandi (referred to by its experimental name, MDV3100), an expensive prostate cancer drug that was funded from basic research through phase I and II clinical trials by taxpayer and charitable funds. Continue Reading
NIH to taxpayers — we don’t care about high prices in US for Xtandi
National Institutes of Health Declines to Exercise Authority to Lower Xtandi Price
The National Institutes of Health will not use its rights under the Bayh-Dole Act to end the monopoly on the expensive prostate cancer drug Xtandi and allow low-priced generic versions to compete on the market.
Continue ReadingHuman Rights Council heats up during informal talks on the primacy of human rights over international trade and IP regimes
At the 32nd session (13 June 2016 – 1 July 2016) of the Human Rights Council, a bloc of countries known as the the Core Group (Brazil, Egypt, Indonesia, India, Senegal, South Africa and Thailand) have tabled a resolution on access to medicines “premised on the primacy of human rights over international trade, investment and intellectual property regimes.” The draft resolution complements the work of the United Nations High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines in reviewing and assessing “proposals and recommend solutions for remedying the policy incoherence between the justifiable rights of inven Continue Reading