E-drug: March 26 meeting on Compulsory Licensing
----------------------------------------------------------
As indicated earlier on ip-health, CPT, MSF and HAI are organizing a meeting
on compulsory licensing of essential medicines for March 26, 1999 in Geneva.
The organizers are in the process determining the participants for the meeting.
If readers of this list are interested in this meeting, they should contact
Catherine Gavin, <cgavin@cptech.org> fax 202.234.5176, voice 202.387.8030
Several international organizations, governments, and public health
organizations are expected to participate in this dialogue, as well as
industry representatives from IFPMA and the generic drug industry. The
following
is one the formal invites that have been sent out.
Jamie Love
---------------------------
Consumer Project on Technology
M�decins Sans Fronti�res
Health Action International
February 11, 1999
Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland
Director- General
World Health Organization
Avenue Appia 20
CH-1211 GENEVA 27
Switzerland
fax (41-22)791-0746
Dear Director - General Brundtland:
This is an invitation to address a meeting on March 26, 1999 in Geneva that
is being convened to discuss an initiative that seeks to improve access to
AIDS and other essential medicines. In particular, the meeting will address
the issue of compulsory licensing of patents on essential medical
technologies. The
meeting will last all day, and we would be grateful if you could make a
presentation to the gathering in the morning, to open the event, or at any
time that would be more convenient for you.
The meeting seeks to address aspects of the growing ethical and public
health dilemmas associated with access to modern medical discoveries. As we
witness new scientific advances in the treatment of disease, we are also
confronted with highly disparate levels of access to treatments. Public
health experts are concerned about the health consequence of national policies
on the protection of intellectual property. Specifically, the meeting will
be a dialogue over the appropriate use of national laws permitting
compulsory licensing of patents for essential medical technologies.
As you know, although specifically allowed in international agreements on
intellectual property, compulsory licensing of patents is a topic of some
controversy. The purpose of this meeting is to begin a dialogue among
stakeholders on several important factual, legal and ethical questions that
will provide a context for policy making.
The specific agenda for the March 26 meeting has not yet been set.
However, we expect to organize four panel discussions covering the following
topics:
1. The nature of access problems for essential medicines used
to treat AIDS, malaria, tuberculous, meningitis and other illnesses.
2. The status of international law on compulsory licensing, and
the role of international trade agreements in setting
international norms of the protection of intellectual property.
3. Practical issues relating to compulsory licensing, including
such issues as methods of determining compensation of patent
owners, economies of scale and small markets, procedures and
standards set out in Article 31 of the TRIPS and other topics.
4. Views of stakeholders from the public health field, NGOs,
industry, governments and international organizations.
The meeting is being organized by M�decins Sans Fronti�res (MSF), Health
Action International (HAI) and the Consumer Project on Technology (CPT). We
recognize that not all participants in the meeting will share the views of
the organizers, and there will be no effort to portray participation in the
meeting as an
endorsement of any particular view. Indeed, the meeting is intended to be a
frank discussion of compulsory licensing, with a range of views expressed.
We expect this dialogue to be constructive and important, and to educate
participants about important factual and legal matters, and to deepen the
participants' understanding of the role of compulsory licensing in our new
rapidly changing global economy.
The participation of the World Health Organization is particularly useful
and appropriate, given the WHO expertise and mission, and the recent
recommendation by the Executive Board of the World Health Assembly regarding
the Revised Drug Strategy.
The coordinator for this meeting is Catherine Gavin, who can be reached in
the United States at 202.387.8030, fax 202.234.5176, by electronic mail at
cgavin@cptech.org, or by postal mail at P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036.
Sincerely,
Bas Van der Heide
Health Action International
Tel +31.20.683.3684 Fax +31.20.685.5002, bas@hai.antenna.nl
Dr. Bernard P�coul
M�decins Sans Fronti�res
Tel +33(0)1.60.62.26.33, Fax +33(0)1 40.21.29.62, bpecoul@msf.org
James Love
Consumer Project on Technology
Tel 202.387.8030, Fax 202.234.5176, love@cptech.org
PS: The Consumer Project on Technology has created a web site
with background information on compulsory licensing at
http://www.cptech.org/ip/health/cl
--
Send mail for the `E-Drug' conference to `e-drug@usa.healthnet.org'.
Mail administrative requests to `majordomo@usa.healthnet.org'.
For additional assistance, send mail to: `owner-e-drug@usa.healthnet.org'.