Big Pharma could land billions of dollars in annual sales that it would have lost to generic competitors thanks to a Food and Drug Administration backlog of applications for generic drugs. The article dissects the potential advantages and disadvantages, including it being bad news for generic drug makers like the industry leader Teva Pharmaceuticals, but great news for Big Pharma companies which can continue to sell their branded drugs after their patents have expired without any generic competition.
Health equity in economic and trade policies
Bottleneck of generic drug applications giving branded drugs more time on the market without competition?
CNN.Money.com: Smith A
Focus on the global South: Lamy intends to ram through modalities at mini ministerial
Kwa A
In a green room WTO meeting of some Ambassadors convened on Monday 3 April, Pascal Lamy informed the group that he will indeed convene a mini ministerial. He has told a small group of Ambassadors to let their Ministers know that they should be in Geneva by 29/30 April to 3/4 May. (Another Ambassador gave another set of dates - 27 April - 5 May). It will be a invitation only Ministerial of about 20-30 Ministers. Ministers from Africa are likely to include Kenya, Mauritius, Zambia, Benin, Senegal, Egypt, South Africa, possibly Nigeria. Agriculture and NAMA week is taking place starting 17 April. Read more at the link below.
Further details: /newsletter/id/31494
Improving hormonal contraceptive supply: the potential of generic and biosimilar drugs
Eldis Health Systems/ Private Sector Partnerships-One: Armand F
Research and development (R&D) companies dominate both the public- and private-sector markets in developing countries, despite the growing number of manufacturers able to produce low-cost generic and biosimilar products around the world. This paper describes the different types of hormonal contraceptive manufacturers and opportunities for increased competition from generic and biosimilar suppliers in the procurement field and the commercial sector, as well as barriers faced in the industry.
World Bank accused of deception over malaria funding
The Guardian Unlimited (UK): Boseley S
The World Bank, a leader in the global effort to control malaria, has been accused of deception and medical malpractice by a group of public health doctors for failing to carry out its funding promises and wrongly claiming its programmes have been successful at cutting the death toll from the disease. The serious charges are levelled by Amir Attaran, a professor at the Institute of Population Health and faculty of law of Ottawa University, and colleagues from around the world. Writing in an online publication for the Lancet medical journal, they say the World Bank is unfit to lead global efforts to control the disease, which kills around 1 million people a year - most of them small children.
13 countries join forces on air ticket tax for poor
USAToday/ Reuters: 1 March 2006
Thirteen countries joined forces Wednesday to adopt a tax on plane tickets to raise money to fight Aids and other killer diseases, Reuters reported, despite resistance from airlines. Brazil, Britain, Chile, Congo, Cyprus, France, Ivory Coast, Jordan, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mauritius, Nicaragua, and Norway have now agreed to raise or started raising a sum from air tickets to help the poor, they said in a closing statement.
Africa vows to resist after GM ruling
Business Report (South Africa) via Tralac
The US may push Africa to accept genetically modified (GM) food now that the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has ruled the EU broke rules by barring GM foods and seeds, however, Africans vowed yesterday to resist.
Bush USTR head Bob Portman violates executive order that protects Africa from trade pressures on medicine patents
The Huffington Post: Love J: 1 March 2006
James Love, describes his "discussion with trade officials and public health groups from Southern Africa about the most recent round of negotiations involving the United States Trade Representative (USTR). Rob Portman, the head of the USTR, is violating a May 10, 2000 Presidential Executive Order, which prohibits the USTR from pressuring countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to have rules for intellectual property rights on medicines that exceed the norms set out in the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Free trade and AIDS drugs
New York Times Editorial, 28 March 2006
Southern African governments have a special need to make or buy low-cost generic drugs to save their citizens. World trade rules are amenable, containing safeguards that allow countries to use generics to preserve public health. But the Bush administration is now negotiating a free trade agreement with the Southern African Customs Union. This article further discusses its implications ; that the United States should not, in the process, restrict the ability of poor people to get generic drugs in these countries.
Indian hero's new mission: to bring cheap drug for bird flu to millions
Binyon M: The Times (London): 6 March 2006
Yusuf Hamied, head of Cipla, India's huge generic drugs company, has stirred global controversy by promising to supply Aids drugs for less than $1 a day. Now he has announced that he is ready to take on bird flu. At issue, again, is the whole question of generic versus proprietary drugs, an issue that has pitted Western capitalism against Third World campaigners and, perhaps more than any other dispute, cast moral opprobrium on multinationals attempting to protect the fruits of their expensive research.
NEPAD and the World Trade Organisation - the close link
Mare J: NEPAD Secretariat Weekly Newsletter: 10 March 2006
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has as its primary goal the liberalisation of world trade. Given the expected accompanying expansion of trade and the enormous potential of such improved trade and investment flows for stimulating economic growth and development, it becomes clear that the activities of the WTO are of central relevance to the implementation of the goals of NEPAD.Recent events in both NEPAD programmes and WTO activities give particular cause to focus on the close linkages between the WTO and NEPAD.