ACTA’s Washington DC conclave: Is this Round 10?

According to an informed source, USTR intimated that next week’s ACTA meeting in Washington DC will be attended by all the negotiating parties and that discussions would include all issues under consideration in ACTA. We are still awaiting a response from USTR regarding the attendees, scope and purpose of the meeting but this new information seems to be indicative of nothing short of the next ACTA round.

Earlier, US government officials had informed that the an intersessional meeting would be held the week of 16 August in Washington DC.
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WHO releases names of experts and advisor to the Emergency Committee concerning Influenza Pandemic (H1N1) 2009

WHO has released the ‘List of Members of, and Advisor to, the International Health Regulations (2005) Emergency Committee concerning Influenza Pandemic (H1N1) 2009‘ at the following site: http://www.who.int/ihr/emerg_comm_members_2009/en/. Of the 15 members and one advisor, 6 had declaration of interests. On this matter, WHO had the following statement:

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Sources for Researching Drug Prices

The following are links to web pages with prices of prescription drugs.

Australia
Schedule Pharmaceutical Benefits
http://www.pbs.gov.au/html/home page

Austria
The Common European Drug Database (CEDD)
http://cedd.oep.hu/

Bahrain
National Health Regulatory Authority
http://www.nhra.bh/SitePages/View.aspx?PageId=42

Belgium
Institut National D’Assurance Maladie-Invalidité Pharmanet
http://www.inami.fgov.be/fr/statistiques/medicament/Pages/statistiques-medicaments-pharmacies-pharmanet.aspx#.WaV_VSeQxQK
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The US Orphan Drug Tax Credit

From the FDA page on the Orphan Drug Tax Credit.

Incentives

TAX CREDIT
(See Footnote 1 below)
FOR TESTING EXPENSES FOR
DRUGS FOR RARE DISEASES OR CONDITIONS

Introduction
Section 45C of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 allows a credit against tax, up to 50 percent of certain clinical testing expenses related to the use of a drug for a rare disease or condition after it is designated as an orphan drug.

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ACTA briefing by De Gucht in the European Parliament

This week, the European Commission conducted two briefings for members of the European Parliament.

On Monday, July 12, members of the European Parliament’s INTA Committee (Committee on International Trade) were briefed by EU ACTA negotiators Luc Devigne and Pedro Valesco in a private, closed meeting.

Today, July 13, Karel De Gucht, EU Commissioner for Trade held a public briefing in the LIBE Committee (Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs). The video is now available here

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China describes TRIPS Council proposal on ACTA and other plurilateral enforcement agreements.

At a June 28, 2010 Geneva workshop on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. Dr. Zhao Hong, from the Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the World Trade Organization, distributed a proposal that was prepared for the June 8-9, 2010 meeting of the WTO TRIPS Council:

Decisions to be taken

Decision of the TRIPS Council on the Relationship between the TRIPS Agreement and Intellectual Property Provisions of bilateral, plurilteral Trade Agreeements

Members,

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The EU proposal for increasing access?

The EU position came out in a proposal for a Joint Recommendation with 9 articles in 11 pages. It is hard to believe but it is worst than the US proposal and it is even worst than nothing. It is an outrageous “roll back” recommendation. It does make clear who’s the boss in the commission. The publishers apparently. Their proposal is bold. Here’s a quick read:

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How Much Time is Necessary to Negotiate the Text of a Multilateral Agreement on Intellectual Property?

There is a negotiation in the WIPO SCCR over the work program on copyright limitations and exceptions for persons with disabilities. Some countries favor a negotiation on a binding treaty. The US government is asking that the SCCR set aside work on the treaty, and focus instead on a non-binding recommendation to address a limited set of issues relating to the import and export of works created under an exception. The US government asserts that treaties would take a very long time to negotiate, ratify and implement. Continue Reading

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