Development Blogs.com

Seminar by professor Jane C. Ginsburg, at UOC headquarters, 25 June 2008, about copyright liability of user generated content practices. Copyright infringement actors Who’s implicated? Users, for uploading copyrighted material, make copies, remix material, etc. If there is no fair use, downloading (and storing in one’s own computer) is a copyright infringement too. Users are directly engaged in copyright infringement. Websites, and their operators, for making available copyrighted material. Website operators are directly engaged in copyright infringement too. What happens with host service providers and access providers? Hosts too are directly implicated, as illegal copies are stored in their computers. Aggregators of links, though they do not actually have the content on...

Victoria Hale, head of OneWorld Health, an innovative non-profit pharmaceutical firm, reckons that compulsory licensing could prove "the last blow" that pushes the drug industry away from looking for cures for diseases of the poor world, which are already woefully neglected... Bruce Lehman, a lawyer who worked on the TRIPS [sic] accord in the Clinton administration, thinks it is cynical for middle-income countries "to avoid paying their fair share of drug-discovery costs."The Economist, June 7, 2007 The recent decisions by Thailand and Brazil to issue compulsory licenses for AIDS drugs, and in Thailand's case a heart-disease drug, triggered strong responses from around the world - anger from drug companies but support from many development NGOs. Often, however, one finds more heat than...

Victoria Hale, head of OneWorld Health, an innovative non-profit pharmaceutical firm, reckons that compulsory licensing could prove "the last blow" that pushes the drug industry away from looking for cures for diseases of the poor world, which are already woefully neglected... Bruce Lehman, a lawyer who worked on the TRIPS [sic] accord in the Clinton administration, thinks it is cynical for middle-income countries "to avoid paying their fair share of drug-discovery costs."The Economist, June 7, 2007 The recent decisions by Thailand and Brazil to issue compulsory licenses for AIDS drugs, and in Thailand's case a heart-disease drug, triggered strong responses from around the world - anger from drug companies but support from many development NGOs. Often, however, one finds more heat than...

Even though the TRIPS agreement and the subsequent Doha declaration contain public health safeguards that allow developing countries to produce or import generic medicines, the reality is that - with a few minor exceptions - developing countries have rarely used those safeguards. That's why it's especially encouraging that earlier this week, Thailand's government announced it would issue a compulsory license for the antiretroviral drug efavirenz, currently patented there by Merck. The drug would initially be imported from India, but local production by the Government Pharmaceutical Organization would begin next year. If issued, the compulsory license would have the effect of halving the price of the drug, from roughly $40/month to $20 - a significant development in a country with nearly...

Even though the TRIPS agreement and the subsequent Doha declaration contain public health safeguards that allow developing countries to produce or import generic medicines, the reality is that - with a few minor exceptions - developing countries have rarely used those safeguards. That's why it's especially encouraging that earlier this week, Thailand's government announced it would issue a compulsory license for the antiretroviral drug efavirenz, currently patented there by Merck. The drug would initially be imported from India, but local production by the Government Pharmaceutical Organization would begin next year. If issued, the compulsory license would have the effect of halving the price of the drug, from roughly $40/month to $20 - a significant development in a country with nearly...

At the last World Health Assembly in May 2006, the WHO member states passed a resolution establishing an intergovernmental working group to "develop a global strategy and plan of action including to provide a framework to enhance research and development into diseases that disproportionately affect developing countries," which will meet for the first time December 4-8 under the leadership of Dr. Howard Zucker, the Assistant Director-General for Health Technology and Pharmaceuticals at WHO, and supported by a dedicated secretariat (see the WHO press release for more details). This effort builds on the recommendations laid out in the report of the Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and Public Health, which Owen has previously discussed here and here.In advance of the...

At the last World Health Assembly in May 2006, the WHO member states passed a resolution establishing an intergovernmental working group to "develop a global strategy and plan of action including to provide a framework to enhance research and development into diseases that disproportionately affect developing countries," which will meet for the first time December 4-8 under the leadership of Dr. Howard Zucker, the Assistant Director-General for Health Technology and Pharmaceuticals at WHO, and supported by a dedicated secretariat (see the WHO press release for more details). This effort builds on the recommendations laid out in the report of the Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and Public Health, which Owen has previously discussed here and here.In advance of the...

Should Thailand sign a bilateral Free Trade Agreement with the U.S.? That would be a tempting idea to any Thai who works for a firm selling to the U.S. market. And Thai consumers would value the reduction in the prices of U.S. imports to Thailand. But there would be at least one important drawback for Thailand of signing an FTA: the government commitment to treat all people with AIDS might cost Thailand as much as $3.2 billion more over the next 20 years, according to a recent World Bank analysis. The possible effects of the FTA on Thailand's AIDS program will be the focus of discussion at a CGD event next Monday.Along with Brazil and Botswana, Thailand has been at the forefront of developing countries in making AIDS treatment freely available to all who need it. By authorizing their...

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation gives unrestricted individual "genius" grants to activists, academics, musicians, authors and others. (Michael Kremer, a non-resident fellow of CGD and the thinker behind the Making Markets for Vaccines, is a previous recipient.) The foundation has now added a new round of 'genis' grants (actually called MacArthur Awards for Creative and Effective Institutions) for institutions and NGOs. The MacArthur Foundation has announced that Knowledge Ecology International (formerly CPTech) was among the first winners of its new round of organizational genius grants. KEI, which is lead by Jamie Love, pushes the United States and the international community to overcome patent and other intellectual property rights hurdles to make drugs to fight...

Freedom to Tinker asks whether Bill Gates now believes in sharing intellectual property, following the decision of the Gates Foundation to require researchers to pool their results.It is worth emphasizing that the Gates Foundation is a completely separate organization from Microsoft.  My guess, for what it is worth, is that he sees these as completely different types of problem.  Windows and Office are just software; an AIDS vaccine would save lives.  But it does make you wonder how he reconciles these different approaches in his own mind. See also On the...

The Senate has passed a bill that would permit greater drug reimportation from Canada.As we have discussed on this blog before, charging higher prices in richer countries (a policy called "price discrimination") is generally good for everyone. It enables the firm to obtain revenues from consumers in middle- and low-income countries who would not be able to afford to buy the drug at a single worldwide-price.  It helps consumers in rich countries, because R&D costs are spread across more consumers who contribute something - however small - to costs of developing medicines. And most importantly, for poor consumers, it means that they have access to essential, life saving medicines that they would otherwise not be able to afford.If the US Congress gives credence to the idea that...

The Consumer Project on Technology has a new blog on drug development and...

The World Health Assembly (the governing body of the WHO) has agreed to launch a working group on research and development, to promote R&D aimed at diseases that disproportionately affect developing countries. The decision represents a compromise between two apparently contradictory positions. The new resolution (A59/A/Conf. Paper No 8) encourages member states: 1) to make global health and medicines a priority sector, to take determined action to emphasize priorities in research and development addressed to the needs of patients, especially those in resource-poor settings, and to harness collaborative research and development initiatives involving disease-endemic countries; (2) to consider the recommendations of the report and to contribute actively to the development of a global...

This month's edition of the WHO Bulletin is somewhat valiantly about the report of the WHO Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and Public Health which was established in 2003 and which published its carefully-worded report earlier this year.This is valiant because the Commission did not succeed in its ambitious task of securing a broad agreement across stakeholders from the rich world and the poor world, from industry, NGOs, international insititutions, governments and the public health community.  The struggle to reach an agreement was long and hard, delaying the publication of the report and leading to the addition of three dissenting statements by members of the Commission.  There was controversy in the Autumn of 2005 when it was allegedly found that...

The World Health Organization recently released a report (also covered in the Financial Times) urging governments and pharmaceutical companies to weaken patent protection on essential medicines to ensure access to those in the developing world who need them. But is the patent system really the source of the problem that effectively denies those who need drugs from receiving them? As it stands, the WTO TRIPs Council ruled in the December Hong Kong Ministerial that it would allow countries with no domestic production capacity and an HIV/AIDS crisis to import generic ARVs. So, there is flexibility within the trade and IP regime to find a solution to the access problem. While the report highlights the importance of patents to public health and development, it stops short of advocating...