President and Minister of Health of Costa Rica ask WHO to create global pool for rights in COVID-19 related technologies

(KEI blogs and other work on COVID-19 are here: https://www.keionline.org/coronavirus) A letter from Costa Rica, signed by Carlos Alarado Quesada, the President, and Dr. Daniel Salas Peraza, the Minister of Health, to Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, was sent this evening… Continue Reading

KEI Blogs and Reseach notes on COVID-19/Coronavirus

COVID-19 Gov’t Contracts: KEI has obtained numerous contracts between the federal government and pharmaceutical companies regarding COVID-19 medical technologies via the Freedom of Information act. For these and other contracts, please see: https://www.keionline.org/covid-contracts. COVID-19 Vaccine Manufacturing: KEI has gathered data… Continue Reading

KEI Statement on Adoption of the WHA72 Transparency Resolution

Today the World Health Assembly (WHA) approved A72/A/CONF./2 Rev.1 as a resolution, titled “Improving the transparency of markets for medicines, vaccines, and other health products.” Link to the resolution: http://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/WHA72/A72_ACONF2Rev1-en.pdf When the text was made available, I sent out a… Continue Reading

UNDP, Unitaid, and WHO caught in Big Pharma’s crosshairs

PhRMA’s Special 301 submissions are part of a yearly ritual to shape the “Special 301” Report, an annual review of the global state of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection and enforcement, conducted by the Office of the United States Trade… Continue Reading

Italy’s Draft WHO resolution: Improving the transparency of markets for drugs, vaccines and other health-related technologies

On 1 February 2019, Dr. Giulia Grillo, Italy’s Minister of Health, sent a letter to Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), with an attached “first draft” of a resolution on “Improving the transparency… Continue Reading

KEI Submission to WHO Essential Medicines List – Enzalutamide / Abiraterone Acetate

The WHO Essential Medicines List is a major WHO tool used to expand access to medicines.  In 2017, the WHO issued the 20th Essential Medicines List (EML) which was the 40th anniversary of the list.  The WHO is currently in… Continue Reading