Canadian Universities Not Contributing Enough To Neglected Health Needs, UAEM Report Says 03/10/2017 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment The Universities Allied for Essential medicines (UAEM) evaluated 15 Canadian research-intensive universities on their contributions to biomedical research on neglected health needs, access to medicines, and education concerning access and innovation issues. The results show that for a number of those universities, this contribution is sub-optimal.
Human Rights Go Hand In Hand With IP In Making Health Systems Work, UN Forum Hears 03/10/2017 by Peter Kenny for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Innovation is vital for the development of medicines, but innovation without proper access to them is pointless, Roberto Azevêdo, Director-General of World Trade Organization has said. Several other agency heads spoke at the same event, where World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stressed the importance of universal health coverage.
2017 Social Forum Focuses On HIV, Other Epidemics, Access To Health 29/09/2017 by Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment The 2017 Social Forum, an annual meeting convened by the Human Rights Council, is being held next week in Geneva, and will focus on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of the HIV epidemic and other communicable diseases and epidemics.
Moglen On Privacy And ‘The Machine’: This Is Not Over Yet 29/09/2017 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment NEW HAVEN — In an arresting presentation framed in a first-hand account of the creation of the early internet and focused on the hyper-sophisticated sensors we carry everywhere in the form of our smartphone, marking our every behaviour and element of our life for commercial and state use, Free Software legend and privacy advocate Prof. Eben Moglen gave a speech this week at Yale Law School on privacy, the “machine,” and the jarring threat humanity is facing. There is at least one sign of hope, he said: the FreedomBox.
Disparity In Access To Medicines Spurs “Humanitarian” Patent Licensing 28/09/2017 by Dugie Standeford for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment “There are shameful access disparities around the world” to life-saving medicines, Harvard University Global Access in Action project Co-Director Quentin Palfrey said at a 26 September Center for Strategic and International Studies event in Washington, DC. And while some of the challenges to fuller access involve pricing, getting medicines to poorer countries or populations means overcoming the obstacles of insufficient research and development (R&D) incentives, access barriers and polarised politics, he said.
G7 ICT Ministers: Free Data Flows, More Access To Data, But IP Protection Nevertheless 26/09/2017 by Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Openness, security and the support for innovation through the empowerment of small and medium companies are the three core points of the joint statement of the G7 ICT Ministers after their two-day meeting in Turin, Italy ending today. While the host, Italian Minister of Economic Development Carlo Calenda, heavily underlined the need to avoid in digitalisation policies the mistakes made in globalisation, many topics of the final statement point to highly familiar commitments, with better protection of intellectual property being one.
Unitaid Official Explains How ‘Breakthrough’ HIV Medicine Pricing Deal Brings Best To The Neediest 25/09/2017 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment NEW YORK — In the midst of the high-level meetings of the annual United Nations General Assembly last week, health officials from the UN and foundations announced what they called a breakthrough pricing agreement that will speed the availability of “the first affordable, generic, single-pill HIV treatment regimen containing [the key compound] dolutegravir to public sector purchasers in low- and middle-income countries at around $75 per person, per year.” A senior official at Unitaid, the drug purchasing mechanism that helped reach the deal, explained to Intellectual Property Watch how it came about and why this is significant.
Panel Advances Key Public Interest Issues In Gene Editing Technology 21/09/2017 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment WASHINGTON, DC — The still-emerging breakthrough CRISPR gene editing tool has the potential to transform the field and do enormous good for humankind. But let’s make sure we understand it better and ensure the public interest before launching into using it too widely. Meanwhile, companies and researchers are actively licensing the technology. That was a message of a set of panellists working close to CRISPR’s development, speaking at a recent event in Washington, DC.
Access To Generic Reproductive Health Supplies Decades Behind Medicines? 19/09/2017 by Tatum Anderson for Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment Despite a massive worldwide push to improve access to contraceptives, generic manufacturers say they’re not yet getting a good share of the pie. [Updated with response from UNFPA]
UN Assembly Tackles Role Of Technology And Innovation In Sustainable Development 18/09/2017 by Dugie Standeford for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Governments and the private sector must work more closely together in the area of technology and innovation to make the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) a reality by 2030, government and major tech company officials said at today’s UN high-level event in New York. Today’s development problems won’t be solved with yesterday’s solutions but by all stakeholders – governments, civil society, youth, businesses and academia – working together, said General Assembly President Miroslav Lajčák. Everyone must have “fair access to technologies and innovations” and to training, he said.