Essential Medicines News

The 23 December 23 2006 issue of The Lancet had several articles dealing with diseases in the developing world, particularly influenza.
Christopher Murray, “Estimation of potential global pandemic influenza mortality on the basis of vital registry data from the 1918-20 pandemic: a quantitative analysis,” The Lancet, 368: 9554, pp. 2211-2218, 23 December 2006. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(06)69895-4. (Registration […]

On 26 December, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld the patent on Eli Lilly’s Zyprexa, the antipsychotic drug olanzapine. The appellate court affirmed the ruling of the lower court, against the claims of three generic manufacturers.

Appellate opinion by U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, 26 December 2006
Original opinion by […]

“New Drug Development,” U.S. Government Accountability Office, 17 November 2006.
The main issues of concern were the recent decline in submissions to the Food and Drug Administration, with a greater percentage of them merely modifications on existing drugs. This is occurring even as FDA approval times are decreasing; meanwhile, pharmaceutical companies have increased their funding for […]

On 29 September, U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) introduced the Public Research in the Public Interest Act of 2006. This bill would allow the production of generic pharmaceuticals in lower- and middle-income countries before the patent life had expired, for drugs developed at public institutions.
At the time, Leahy was the ranking Democrat on the Senate […]

“The right tools can save lives,” Nature, 444, 681, 7 December 2006. (Subscription required.)
Many of the world’s poor are unable to obtain either an accurate diagnosis or effective treatment for many treatable diseases due to an inadequate distribution of the necessary medical tools. To address this problem, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, along with […]

Tara Leevy, “Intellectual property and access to medicine for the poor,” Virtual Mentor: American Medical Association Journal of Ethics, 8:834-838, December 2006.
This article discusses the “flexibilities” of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights: in particular, their effect on access to medicine for the world’s poor. The Novartis suit against India’s patent law […]

Médecins Sans Frontières, “MSF Urges Novartis to Drop Its Case Against the Indian Government,” press release, 20 December 2006.
Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), as part of its Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines, is asking pharmaceutical company Novartis to drop its legal challenge to India’s patent law. Novartis is suing after the country rejected […]

Martin Enserink, “WHO Panel Weighs Radical Ideas,” Science, 314: 1373, 1 December 2006. (Subscription required.)
Short article on reforms to be discussed at the World Health Organization’s Intergovermental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property regarding the current IP framework.
The main proposal is James Love’s “R&D Treaty” where member countries agree to spend a […]

There are several notable pieces in the 23 December issue of the British Medical Journal.
Joseph E. Stiglitz, “Scrooge and intellectual property rights,” editorial, British Medical Journal, 23 December 2006.
Stiglitz criticizes intellectual property rights in medicine, arguing that monopolies are inefficient. Instead, he proposes prize funding for discovering cures.
Stiglitz won the Nobel Prize in economics in […]

Caroline Gallant, “Announcement: UAEM Introduces Interim Executive Directors Michael Steffen & Robynn Sturm,” univ-list mailing list, 18 December 2006. (Public archives not available.)
Universities Allied for Essential Medicines has hired interim executive directors. Both of the new directors are students, and will serve February to September 2007. The organization is looking to hire a permanent executive […]