Workshop: Patents, the Public Interest and Two New Medical Technologies: CRISPR and CAR T

Workshop: Patents, the Public Interest and Two New Medical Technologies: Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR), Chimeric Antigen Receptors (CAR) technologies

On September 15th, 2017, Knowledge Ecology International will be hosting a workshop on: “Patents, the Public Interest and Two New Medical Technologies: CRISPR and CAR T.”

If you are unable to attend in person, a livestream of the event will be available here

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KEI comments at July 25, 2017 civil society stakeholder forum at the 19th round of the RCEP negotiation

These are the notes I used when providing the KEI comments at the July 25, 2017 civil society stakeholder forum at the 19th round of the RCEP negotiation.

My name is James Love. I work for Knowledge Ecology International, an NGO that focuses on the social aspects to the production, management and control of knowledge goods. I am also a member of the board of directors of the Union for Affordable Cancer Treatment.

The IP Chapter is complex, and in the time allocated, I will discuss five issues.

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House Appropriations rejects Kaptur amendment (allow competition for gov funded drugs if prices higher than reference countries)

On 19 July 2017, Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) introduced an amendment at the markup in the U.S. House Appropriations Committee of the FY2018 State and Foreign Operations, Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations bill that would direct the Department of Health and Human Services to use its authority to break patent monopolies for government-funded inventions priced higher in the U.S. than seven other high-income countries.

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Senate Armed Services Committee directive on use of Bayh-Dole rights for DoD funded drugs

The report of the Senate Armed Services Committee on the National Defense Authorization Act of 2018, S. 1519, published July 10, 2017, includes a directive that links exclusive patent rights to the prices of drugs, vaccines and other medical technologies that are based upon DoD-funded inventions.

The text of the directive, approved unanimously by the full Senate Armed Services Committee, is as follows:

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Groups, individuals write to Senator Wyden, appalled at pressure on India over drug patents

On June 23, 2017, Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Representatives Kevin Brady (R-TX) and Richard Neal (D-MA) wrote to President Trump about “trade and investment barriers” in India. The four members of Congress are respectively the chair and ranking members of the Senate Finance and the House Ways and Means Committee.

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Brussels Principles on Medication Sales over the Internet

On March 31st, KEI joined Prescription Justice, EFF, and Public Citizen at RightsCon 2017 to discuss the issues of sales of medication over the Internet. I was in attendance on KEI’s behalf; Gabe Levitt represented Prescription Justice; Jeremy Malcolm presented for EFF; and Burcu Kilic was there for Public Citizen. It was one of the few panels at RightsCon dedicated to medicines/health.

After the session, the panelists convened to draft an agreement on a series of overarching principles that may help guide policy and shape the conversation.

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Six Senators Call on Army to Hold Public Hearing on Proposed Exclusive License of Zika Vaccine to Sanofi

Today, six Senators, including Sen. Durbin (D-IL), Sen. Sanders (I-VT), Sen. Markey (D-MA), Sen. Brown (D-OH), Sen. Blumenthal (D-CT), and Sen. Angus King (I-ME), sent a letter to Acting Secretary of the Army Robert Speer requesting a public hearing on the proposed exclusive license of a federally-funded Zika vaccine to the French multinational, Sanofi, and saying that “it is imperative that any forthcoming vaccine is accessible and affordable for all, especially given the significant taxpayer investment to date.”

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HRC35: Human Rights Council adopts Right to Health Resolution

The United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) convened its 35th session from 6 June 2017 to 23 June 2017. During HRC35 (which took place in Room XX of the UN Palais des Nations in Geneva), a group of 21 countries tabled a resolution entitled, “The right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. Continue Reading