Access to medicines in India: feedback from a gov’t consultation on compulsory licensing

India’s Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (managed by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry) recently released a Discussion Paper on Compulsory Licensing and invited feedback from civil society groups, industry, academia and other stakeholders to guide their formulation of a compulsory licensing policy. The Discussion Paper expressed concern regarding the availability of new products [...]

Backgrounder on compulsory licensing

The Council on Foreign Relations recently posted an interesting article which discusses global trade rules for intellectual property in the context of access to essential medicines.  The following is a brief overview of the article:  In 1995, members of the WTO ascribed to the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), which established minimum [...]

Lower tariffs to fight AIDS

25,000 people from around the world gathered this week in Mexico City for the 17th International AIDS Conference.  Thomson Ayodele’s column in yesterday’s New York Post focuses on the main challenges facing patients in developing countries:  lack of healthcare infrastructure and access to safe medicines. ( August 4, 2008 )  This week, 25,000 people from around [...]

New Government in Thailand Supports the Role of Medical Innovation in Improving Patient Outcomes

A recent editorial in the Wall Street Journal Asia (Good Medicine for Thailand) commends recent efforts on behalf of the Thai government to improve support for drug research and development and highlights the importance of medical innovation in improving health care delivery and patient outcomes. It appears the new government in Thailand is starting to [...]

Anti-IP Special Interests Continue to Pursue Strategies at IGWG that Benefit Grey Market Suppliers and Others that Profit from Their Agenda

At the World Health Organization meetings, a myriad of special interest groups are aggressively lobbying member states to loosen the definition of counterfeit medicines and to weaken intellectual property protection. Three key strategies are at the heart of the Anti-IP activists tactics o benefit generic and “grey –market” suppliers of drugs. The first strategy is [...]

Truth from the front lines

I had the pleasure of attending the Patients and Patents reception and workshop in Geneva on the eve of the 61st World Health Assembly where we received an update on the progress made by the IGWG on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property. One of the speakers was an Anglican priest from Nigeria, Father Ojeh.  [...]

The relationship between intellectual property (IP) rights & drug efficacy and safety

Without any meaningful input from patients, intense efforts are underway at the WHO to weaken – or dismantle – the system of intellectual property (IP) rights that has produced nearly every life-saving medicine that is available today.  On behalf of a variety of both public and private sector special interests, anti-IP NGOs are using the [...]