Dr Othoman Mellouk is a Moroccan treatment advocate who has been working on intellectual property and access to medicines for more than a decade. He is the Intellectual Property and Access to Medicines Lead at the international treatment preparedness coalition (ITPC), a global network of people living with HIV and their advocates working together to achieve access to HIV and Viral Hepatitis and a member of the WHO Strategic and Technical Advisory Committee on HIV and Hepatitis. Dr Mellouk started off in the Association for the Fight against AIDS which has been at the forefront of the response to HIV in Morocco and the introduction of the first anti-HIV generic medicines in the country. In a series supported by the Make Medicines Affordable organisation, Mellouk recently engaged in an interview with Patralekha Chatterjee for Intellectual Property Watch. [Note: this interview is one of two. An interview with Carlos Correa will follow.] Continue reading ->

Image Credits: Alex Bego.

WASHINGTON, DC — Recently named director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Robert Redfield told a gathering of global health experts this week that the most critical investment that can be made is in global health security, with the recent fast response to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo setting the example.  Continue reading ->

Image Credits: William New.

By David Branigan for Health Policy Watch

Member states of the United Nations highlighted progress on combatting AIDS at a 12 June meeting of the General Assembly, with AIDS-related deaths reduced “from 1.5 million in 2010 to 1 million in 2016,” according to a UN report citing UNAIDS data. But the report found progress toward eliminating the disease to be uneven, and provided recommendations to address gaps and challenges. Continue reading ->

Following the South African government’s recent approval of a new intellectual property policy that includes elements aimed at preserving access to medical products that are increasing in popularity among developing countries, the research-based pharmaceutical industry had a few general comments. The message: the policy incorporates some of their concerns but is wrong on “evergreening” patents, and could harm industry, which is “the goose that lays the golden egg.” Continue reading ->

A hundred years ago, the Spanish flu infected a third of the world population, and killed more people than the two world wars combined. The World Health Organization is seeking to help the world prepare for the next pandemic, which they say, is only waiting to happen. The recent World Health Assembly agreed to ask the WHO to complete an analysis on the implications of including seasonal influenza virus and pandemic virus genetic information into its benefit-sharing mechanism to help the world face the next influenza pandemic.

Separately, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) issued a study on how to handle virus genetic information, and voiced preference for publicly accessible databases for sharing this information, rather than public domain databases, as the latter raise issue of traceability of the information from originators and also from users. And a WHO official issued a call for WHO member states to become involved in activities of the CBD’s Nagoya Protocol on access and benefit-sharing to ensure health priorities are put before environmental priorities on genetic resources. Continue reading ->

Image Credits: William New.

Falsified and substandard medical products continue to be a global concern, and how those products are characterised is important to avoid confusion, particularly with intellectual property rights infringement. A panel convened by Brazil, India and South Africa yesterday at the World Trade Organization looked at the implications of a new definition of such products at the neighbouring World Health Organization. Continue reading ->