In preparation for the 65th World Health Assembly, held in Geneva from 21 May 2012 to 26 May 2012, the World Health Organization (WHO) prepared a document (A65/29 Add. 1, 5 April 2012) entitled “Voluntary contributions by fund and by donor for the financial period 2010-2011. Continue Reading →
This is a rough list of the recent ICE press releases mentioning counterfeit and pharmaceutical. It is quite clear that the overwhelming majority of counterfeit busts involve Viagra and other erectile dysfunction drugs, a problem that will probably resolve itself once the Pfizer patents on Viagra expire.
In my quick read of the ICE press releases, I found just 12 pharmaceutical counterfeiting cases in the ICE press releases from 2009 to May 2012, with 14 defendants.
Donald McNeil has an article in the New York Times that appeared in print on May 22, 2012 (page D6 of the New York edition) with the headline: “Malaria: Fake and Substandard Drugs Grow as Threat to Fight Disease.” A web version is available here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/22/health/policy/fake-and-substandard-drugs-grow-as-threat-to-fight-malaria.html
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KEI Statement on World Health Assembly resolution on Consultative Expert Working Group on Research and Development: Financing and Coordination
A number of developing countries worked together to push the World Health Assembly to create a member state process to consider the implementation of the CEWG. The most important CEWG recommendations are to begin work on a new WHO Convention on R&D financing, and to de-link R&D costs from drug prices.
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The EU has provided KEI with a copy of the EU statement delivered at the 65th World Health Assembly on Wed, May 23, 2012, on the WHO Consultative Expert Working Group on R&D Financing. In a nutshell, the EU position is to “generally support” the US led position, and to slow everything down. Here are some of the main points:
- We recognise that current measures are insufficient, although we also cherish the collective efforts that have been made with respect to the issue so far.
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This is a brief note regarding the WHA negotiations on the proposed treaty for medical R&D, and in particular, the elements which deal with financing R&D. I’ll skip the history and earlier context of the negotiations, and focus on the main issues in play this week.
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On June 27, 2012, Teresa Stanek Rea, the Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and the Deputy Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), testified at a hearing on: “International IP Enforcement: Protecting Patents, Trade Secrets and Market Access”, before the US House of Representatives, Judicary Committee, Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition, and the Continue Reading