# \[e-drug\] Berkeley Law HIV & Neglected Disease Therapy Patent Pool Workshop

**URL:** <https://talk.edrugplus.org/t/e-drug-berkeley-law-hiv-neglected-disease-therapy-patent-pool-workshop/32576>\
**Category:** e-drug\
**Created:** [October 5, 2009, 5:10pm UTC](https://talk.edrugplus.org/t/e-drug-berkeley-law-hiv-neglected-disease-therapy-patent-pool-workshop/32576 "2009-10-05T17:10:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
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**Author:** ![Jay\_Purcell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3be4f8/32.png) [@Jay\_Purcell](https://talk.edrugplus.org/u/Jay_Purcell)\
**Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 5:10pm UTC](https://talk.edrugplus.org/t/e-drug-berkeley-law-hiv-neglected-disease-therapy-patent-pool-workshop/32576/1 "2009-10-05T17:10:11Z")

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E-DRUG: Berkeley Law HIV & Neglected Disease Therapy Patent Pool Workshop  
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Berkeley Law is organizing a workshop on UNITAID's and GlaxoSmithKline's  
patent pool initatives, and registration is now open. There is recent,  
unprecedented support for patent pooling initiatives: UNITAID is developing  
a patent pool for HIV therapies, and GSK opened its neglected diseases pool  
earlier this year, and recently celebrated the donation of over 1,500  
patented technologies from Alnylam Pharmaceuticals. As more companies and  
labs consider participating, Berkeley Law will host thought-leaders from  
throughout the biomedical R+D community to consider how the pools can work,  
and explore issues around their management, design, and implementation. We're  
bringing together actors from both private (GlaxoSmithKline, Gilead, Alylam,  
sanofi-aventis, Merck, and others) and not-for-profit sectors (UC Berkeley,  
UCLA, Stanford, Columbia, the National Institutes of Health, Doctors Without  
Borders, UNITAID, Knowledge Ecology International, the Medicines for Malaria  
Venture and others), for a one-day workshop on biotech patent pools.

For more information, including registration, directions, times, and more  
resources, please see here -  
www.law.berkeley.edu/institutes/bclt/patentpools/about.html

Background: UNITAID is in the late stages of planning a patent pool for HIV  
medicines. Glaxo just opened its patent pool for neglected disease  
therapies. The basic model is one adopted from MPEG and DVD patent pools -  
essential technologies are managed by a central licensor, and licensees  
rapidly and cheaply access the IP to make new formulations, especially the  
missing pediatric and DOTS-friendly formulations. For neglected diseases,  
like TB, Malaria, Chagas, the challenge is leveraging the resources of big  
actors (like Glaxo, or Pfizer) and all of their IP so that an actor, like  
the Medicines for Malaria Venture, can access some crucial technology  
quickly, cheaply, and with near-zero transaction costs.

Please consider our website  
\<[http://www.law.berkeley.edu/institutes/bclt/patentpools/about.html&gt](http://www.law.berkeley.edu/institutes/bclt/patentpools/about.html&gt);  
for more information and registration. You can also register there. Limited  
funding is available to cover registration and travel costs. Please contact  
Jay Purcell (Purcell [at] berkeley.edu) for more information.

Thank you for your consideration,

Jay Purcell  
Dr. Mike Gretes  
Connie Chen  
UC Berkeley School of Law  
University of British Columbia  
University of California, San Francisco