Knowledge Ecology International

More on this dispute at /colombia

In response to the recent announcement from Colombia’s Ministry of Health that a public interest declaration regarding imatinib will be issued in a matter of days, Novartis issued a statement that criticized the forthcoming action, saying, “We have consistently said that Declarations of Public Interest can be important and legitimate tools to be used only in exceptional circumstances,” and saying “this is simply not the case in Colombia.” Continue Reading →

David Hirschmann, US Chamber, claims efforts to curb high prices for cancer drugs are “a destructive course.”

The US Chamber of Commerce might consider renaming itself the US/Swiss Chamber of Commerce, after their most recent attack on the Colombia Minister of Health (MoH) announcement that a “Declaration of Public Interest” would be issued for the patents on the cancer drug imatinib, held by the Swiss company Novartis. In the US Chamber’s defense of the Swiss drug company, they don’t mention the fact that Novartis has earned about $48 billion from sales of imatinib (sold by Novartis under the brand names Gleevec or Glivec) since the drug was put on the market, including more than $380 million per month in 2015. Continue Reading →

Alfred Engelberg and Aaron Kesselheim have published an opinion article in Nature titled:

“Use the Bayh-Dole Act to lower drug prices for government healthcare programs,” Nature Medicine 22, 576 (2016) doi:10.1038/nm0616-576, Published online 07 June 2016.
http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/v22/n6/abs/nm0616-576.html

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On May 24th, 2016 the NIH posted a notice on the Federal Register stating it is contemplating the grant of an exclusive license to Dimension Therapeutics, Inc. for the development of an Adeno-Associated Virus Vectors for the Treatment of Glycogen… Continue Reading →

Reports have emerged from a DNDi meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, that the Colombian Ministry of Health announced that negotiations with Novartis over the price of Glivec have failed, and that Minister Alejandro Gaviria will proceed with the formal declaration that a compulsory license for the patents on the drug is in the public interest.

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By Sophia Simon

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*The author thanks Professor Marc Perlman (Brown University) for his comprehensive notes on the IGC deliberations of 3 June 2016.

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