PRIVATE PATENTS AND PUBLIC HEALTH

Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health,
Innovation and Intellectual Property (IGWG).
2006 (August) GSK announces the withdrawal of its patents and
patent applications for a specific formulation of AZT/3TC
that was the subject of civil society actions in India and
Thailand.
2006–2008 Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health,
Innovation and Intellectual Property (IGWG) negotiations
take place in Geneva.
2007 (May) World Health Assembly asks the director general of
WHO in resolution 60.30 “to encourage the development of
proposals for health-needs driven research and development
for discussion at the Intergovernmental Working Group
that includes a range of incentive mechanisms including
also addressing the linkage between the cost of research and
development and the price of medicines, vaccines, diagnostic
kits and other health-care products and a method for
tailoring the optimal mix of incentives to a particular
condition or product, with the objective of addressing
diseases that disproportionately affect developing
countries.”
2007 United States government establishes the Food and Drug
Administration Priority Review Voucher to incentivise
neglected drug and vaccine development.
2007 (July) Rwanda notifies the WTO that it intends to use the
“August 30” system to import medicines produced under a
compulsory licence.
2007 (October) In the first use of the “August 30” system, Canada
issues a compulsory licence for the production of a triple
fixed-dose combination ARV for export to Rwanda.
2007 The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
adopts the WIPO Development Agenda to ensure that
development considerations form an integral part of WIPO’s
work.
2008 (January) Thailand issues compulsory licences for four anticancer
drugs: docetaxel, letrozole, erlotinib, imatinib.
2008 The WHA adopts the Global Strategy and Plan of Action on
Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property drawn
up by the IGWG.
INTRODUCTION
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