HIV vaccine trial cuts infection by 31.2%

A Phase III clinical trial involving more than 16,000 adult volunteers in Thailand has demonstrated that an investigational HIV vaccine regimen was safe and modestly effective in preventing HIV infection. According to final results released by the trial sponsor (the U.S. Army Surgeon General), the prime boost combination of Sanofi Pasteur’s ALVAC vaccine and AIDSVAX, [...]

UN report on patents and innovation

“History has shown… that companies and countries which continue to invest in new products and innovation during times of economic recession will be those that will be best positioned to take advantage of the recovery, when it arrives,” said WIPO Director General Francis Gurry.
Demand for international trademarks and patents dropped last year in the wake [...]

Ministers from Least-Developed Countries develop strategy to encourage local innovation and investment

Ministers and other senor government officials from least developed countries agreed to a strategy for using intellectual property to encourage local innovation and encourage foreign investment at a recent WIPO Forum.  The ministers also discussed the challenges facing LDCs in this area, in particular the difficulties for LDCs to obtain better access to technological information.
WIPO [...]

Incentives important to stimulate drug development – WHO

Pharmaceutical firms need incentives, including lucrative patents, to keep creating drugs and vaccines against emergent threats such as the H1N1 influenza pandemic, the World Health Organisation’s head said on Tuesday.
“Progress in public health depends on innovation. Some of the greatest strides forward for health have followed the development and introduction of new medicines and vaccines,” [...]

New drug being tested in Africa for river blindness

The World Health Organization reports that a clinical trial is being launched in three African countries of a drug that could eliminate onchocerciasis, or river blindness, one of the leading infectious causes of blindness across Africa. The drug, moxidectin, is being investigated for its potential to kill or sterilize the adult worms of Onchocerca volvulus, [...]

HIV vaccine close to human trial

Researchers at the University of Western Ontario say they’re confident their HIV vaccine is only months away from being approved for human trials.
According to a report by the National Post, lead researcher Dr. Chil-Yong Kang said the approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration can come as soon as two or three months.
The vaccine [...]

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 [...]

GAVI announces innovative approach to developing vaccines for developing nations

At the end of last week, the GAVI Alliance partners (the World Bank, WHO and UNICEF), five national governments and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation formally announced the first-ever Advance Market Commitment (AMC) designed to accelerate access to vaccines against pneumococcal disease.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the $1.5 billion program marks a departure [...]

Update from the World Health Assembly – May 20

Live Twitter updates from the 62nd World Health Assembly:  www.twitter.com/patientspatents
Discussions on issues of public health and innovation have been further delayed.  They were to be discussed yesterday, but have been rescheduled for later today.  With other issues such as climate change, social determinants of health and pandemic influenza preparedness also on the agenda, it seems likely [...]

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 [...]