Joint letter to Dr. Fauci at NIAID, regarding the geographic scope of RNAceuticals HIV patent license, asks that exclusivity not extend to countries with low and moderate incomes

Below is a letter from several individuals and groups, asking that NIAID not grant exclusive rights in a HIV patent license for South Africa, India and other low income countries. (PDF version here) The license is to RNAceuticals, a firm… Continue Reading

WTO TRIPS Council (July 2020): South Africa’s submission on IP and the Public Interest – Beyond Access to Medicines and Medical Technologies towards a more Holistic Approach to TRIPS Flexibilities

On Friday, 17 July 2020, South Africa submitted a paper to the World Trade Organization (WTO) TRIPS Council entitled, Intellectual Property and the Public Interest: Beyond Access to Medicines and Medical Technologies Towards a More Holistic Approach To TRIPS Flexibilities.… Continue Reading

KEI receives seven new contracts for COVID 19 research from BARDA and DOD, including five using “Other Transactions Authority” that weaken or eliminate Bayh-Dole and FAR Safeguards

KEI has a number of outstanding requests under the United States Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) for contracts related to biomedical innovations to control or treat the COVID-19 pandemic. On Thursday, June 25, and Friday, June 26, we received a… Continue Reading

WTO TRIPS Council (informal): South Africa’s interventions on COVID-19, TRIPS flexibilities, and domestic manufacturing capacity

On Friday, 19 June 2020, the World Trade Organization (WTO) convened an informal virtual Open-ended Meeting of the TRIPS Council. . The following statements were delivered by South Africa at the virtual open-ended informal meeting of the TRIPS Council. In… Continue Reading

EU Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan issues statement on European Union compulsory licensing in context of COVID-19, makes important statement about TRIPS Article 31bis

On 14 May 2020, Bernd Lange, Chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade (INTA) wrote a letter to Phil Hogan (Commissioner for Trade, European Commission) on the “commercial aspects of intellectual property rights for medical products in the… Continue Reading

WHO member states poised to adopt weaker than needed COVID-19 resolution after tortuous negotiations

UPDATE: The World Health Organization has published the COVID-19 response resolution as a conference paper (A73/CONF./1) marked with the date of 18 May 2020. The sponsors of the draft resolution included: Albania, Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bhutan, Bolivia (Plurinational State… Continue Reading

Patents related to PX-UV, an R2-D2 look-alike robot that may disinfect public spaces from SARS-CoV-2

Texas-based company Xenex Disinfection Services, a manufacturer of robots that reportedly removes the SARS-CoV-2 virus from public spaces, has been making news lately. One of their robots, which uses ultraviolet lights to kill viruses and bacteria in surfaces and look… Continue Reading