Drug development for TB: an innovative collaboration

A landmark collaboration could see the development of the first new-action tuberculosis drug in 40 years.  Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (TB Alliance), a not-for-profit, product development partnership, and Tibotec, a Johnson & Johnson company, have joined forces to focus on the development of the new experimental drug TMC207.
Forbes reports that if the drug [...]

WHO and 30 vaccine manufacturers meet: commit to meeting public health needs re H1N1

WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met with over 30 vaccine manufacturers from developing and developed countries at WHO headquarters yesterday.  Industry representatives affirmed their wish to cooperate in making supplies of any eventual vaccine for Influenza A(H1N1) available to developing countries, and said they stood ready to produce the [...]

New Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme in the U.K. to Encourage Innovation and Access

A new Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme (PPRS) came into effect in the U.K. on January 1, 2009.  The PPRS represents an attempt to balance incentives for innovation with cost and price restraint.  The objectives of the 2009 PPRS are:

To deliver value for money; securing the provision of safe and effective medicines at reasonable prices;
To encourage innovation [...]

Biotech Innovation and the role of Intellectual Property

Not surprisingly, the recent crisis in global financial markets has been front page news for the past few weeks.  The Wall Street Journal and other major publications have noted that the impact of this crisis goes well beyond the stock market. 
The Convergence Law Institute posted a number of comments in their blog about the impact of the [...]