Public-Private Coalition’s High-Profile Delinkage Policy For Emerging Vaccines 04/04/2017 by Tatum Anderson for Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment It’s early February in Tchaourou district, Borgou in Benin, and a pregnant woman is admitted to hospital. Her premature baby is born by caesarean section but she dies a day later on February 12th. It turns out she had Lassa fever, a deadly viral haemorrhagic disease. But that’s only discovered after the baby is discharged from hospital and taken to northern Togo. The newborn also becomes ill and is taken to hospital for treatment.
NGOs Detail Changes For Public Health In RCEP Asian Trade Pact 31/03/2017 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment Concerns continue to grow among civil society about provisions in a major trade agreement in the Asian region. Of specific worry is the intellectual property chapter containing in particular a data exclusivity clause, and the linkage between the investment chapter and the IP chapter.
EU Parliament: No Commercial Availability Or Compensation In Marrakesh Implementation 23/03/2017 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments The European Parliament announced today that its Legal Affairs Committee approved new draft legislation to bring European Union law into line with an international treaty providing copyright exceptions for special format books for visually impaired people. Limitations to the scope of the treaty, such as commercial availability or compensation, were disregarded by Parliament members.
What To Watch Out For In The EU-Mercosur FTA Negotiations: Consequences For Access To Medicines 22/03/2017 by Intellectual Property Watch 6 Comments As negotiations take place this week, an evaluation of the impact of one of the TRIPS-plus measures of the Mercosur/EU FTA on the prices of medicines in Brazil has been released. Based on the draft of the agreement, by their calculations, an additional USD 444 million would be necessary to be spent by the public health system for the purchase of six medicines alone, write Marcela Fogaça Vieira and Gabriela Costa Chaves.
UN Development Programme Calls For Reform Of IP And Investor Protection Regimes 21/03/2017 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment A United Nations Development Programme report released today places importance on transforming global institutions, and establishing fair trade and investment rules. The report calls for global reform of the intellectual property rights regime and investor protection regime. In addition, the report ranks countries on their human development level, putting Norway first followed by Australia and Switzerland.
World Bank Now Relying On Capital Markets, Focuses On Fragile Countries 20/03/2017 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment After the announcement in December of a record US$75 billion commitment to its International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank Group said today that this commitment was both historic in terms of value, and also a sign of a paradigm change, including the raising of funds from capital markets.
3D Printing In Africa: Huge Benefit Or Big IP Threat? 13/03/2017 by Munyaradzi Makoni for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment CAPE TOWN, South Africa – The five-metre tall 3D printer dwarfs four engineers in the renewable energy laboratory at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, the biggest tertiary institution in the Eastern Cape, South Africa.
UN High-Level Panel On Access To Medicines Takes Next Step At Human Rights Council 09/03/2017 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments The United Nations Human Rights Council held a panel discussion yesterday to exchange views on good practices and key challenges relevant to access to medicines. The panel gave a large part of the discussion to the recent report of the United Nations Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines, much to the chagrin of the European Union and the United States.
Legal Swords Sharpened In Kenya-Manchester Cancer Drug Rights Dispute 07/03/2017 by Maina Waruru for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment NAIROBI, Kenya — A dispute between Kenyan researchers and the University of Manchester, United Kingdom, over ownership of a cancer discovered after successful clinical trials in Kenya finally seems headed to courts.
UN Human Rights Council To Host Expert Panel On Medicines Access This Week 04/03/2017 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment The United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva this week will host a panel discussion among a notable range of experts on access to medicines and the controversial UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel report issued last September. The panel is expected to lead to a report sent on to the Human Rights Council for possible action next autumn.