Changes At Top Of The UN; Recruitment Ongoing 15/03/2016 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment This year will be the last in office for United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. A number of Eastern European candidates are being proposed by their governments to be the next secretary general. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, as well as the UN Environment Programme are expected to have a new head by summer. Meanwhile, chairs are actively revolving in law offices.
China’s Pharmaceutical Sector And The IP Puzzle 15/03/2016 by Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Despite impressive growth, the pharmaceutical sector in China still relies on generic drug production since the majority of domestic companies cannot compete with country-based foreign corporations. Currently, following WTO pressure to oblige China to comply with IP regulations, more and more patented drugs are entering the market. Unfortunately, in spite of a newly introduced IP friendly bill, a puzzling situation persists, writes Pietro Dionisio.
US Senators Release Public Comments On Sovaldi Report 14/03/2016 by Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment Two key senators today released dozens of comments they received in response to their report on the medicine Sovaldi (and its follow-on Harvoni), whose extreme high prices sparked a debate over pharmaceutical pricing that has created momentum for policy changes.
EPO Union Presses Management To Reverse President’s Disciplinary Actions 14/03/2016 by Dugie Standeford for Intellectual Property Watch 4 Comments The stand-off between European Patent Office President Benoît Battistelli and the Office’s largest staff union continues this week with a 16 March SUEPO demonstration planned during a meeting of the Office’s Administrative Council (AC), which supervises the EPO’s activities.
ETSI Officials Say IPR Policy A Foundation Of Successful Telecoms Standards 14/03/2016 by Dugie Standeford for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Standards developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute for industries such as the mobile communications sector are underlain by an intellectual property rights policy that has proved successful for many years, ETSI officials said at an 11 March Oxfirst webinar.
High-Level UN Initiative On Global Public Health Gap Holds Landmark Hearing 11/03/2016 by Catherine Saez and William New, Intellectual Property Watch 4 Comments An initiative of the United Nations secretary general yesterday gathered what could be described as an assembly of many of the world’s best thinkers and practitioners on public health and intellectual property rights. Industry, activists, academics, international organisations, and possibly some governments poured out their views for nearly seven hours – at times coming to tears and tension – shepherded by an astute moderator, as they responded to the call to take a longstanding debate on medicines access and high prices to a breakthrough.
MSF Challenges Pfizer Patent Application For Pneumonia Vaccine In India 11/03/2016 by Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment Today, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF, Doctors Without Borders) filed a patent opposition against Pfizer’s vaccine for pneumonia in India.
ICANN Marrakesh Meeting Reaches Milestone For IANA Transition 11/03/2016 by Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments The Board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) at its 55th meeting in Marrakesh today (10 March) passed a milestone resolution to ship a package of proposals by its stakeholder groups to the US National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to end the latter’s role as an oversight body for the internet. If approved, ICANN will be the next manager of Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), which is a set of registries for domain names, IP addresses and protocol parameters essential for the functioning of the global internet.
WHO Welcomes UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel, Offers Suggestions 10/03/2016 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment The World Health Organization has provided a list of suggestions to the United Nations Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines, highlighting WHO activities in this area and making suggestions on areas the WHO has not yet been able to complete. It also describes several new proposals by WHO, including a global “fair pricing forum,” a pooled health product R&D fund, and a global antibiotic research and development facility.
Civil Society Concerns Over US Health Service Plan To Give Exclusive Patent Rights To Sanofi 10/03/2016 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment The United States National Institutes of Health’s decision to consider granting an exclusive licence on patents for a newly government-developed vaccine to Sanofi has prompted a strong reaction from civil society warning against potential high prices and requesting transparency in the process.