[Ip-health] TOMORROW: CPTech Brown Bag with Thomas Pogge

[Benjamin Krohmal]

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Tomorrow, Tuesday,  October 17th, 2006
Time:  12-1:30pm
Venue:  1621 Connecticut Avenue Suite 500, Washington, DC 20009
=09(1 block from the Q St. exit of the Dupont Circle Red Line Metro Stop)

The Consumer Project on Technology (CPTech) is hosting a seminar by
Thomas Pogge on =93Social Justice and New Approaches to Promoting
Pharmaceutical Innovation.=94

Several proposals have been put forth suggesting ways to promote
productive pharmaceutical innovation without relying on drug
monopolies that lead to exorbitant prices.  On October 17th, CPTech
will host Thomas Pogge=92s presentation of one such proposal and
discussion of the need for pharmaceutical IP reform from the
perspective of social justice.

Pogge is a professor of political science and philosophy at Columbia
University and the Australian National University. He received his
PhD from Harvard under the supervision of John Rawls and is the
author of World Poverty and Human Rights.  Pogge=92s work is considered
seminal in the field of global justice, and he has recently devoted
considerable research to intellectual property as it relates to
access to medicine.

According to Pogge,
  =93The rules should be redesigned so that the development of any new
essential drug is rewarded in proportion to its impact on the global
disease burden (not through monopoly rents). This reform would bring
down drug prices worldwide close to their marginal cost of production
and would powerfully stimulate pharmaceutical research into currently
neglected diseases concentrated among the poor. Its feasibility shows
that the existing medical-patent regime (TRIPS as supplemented by
bilateral agreements) is severely unjust =97 and its imposition a human
rights violation on account of the avoidable mortality and morbidity
it foreseeably produces.=94
=09From =93Human Rights and Global Health: A Research Program=94 in Ethics
and Infectious Disease (Oxford: Blackwell 2006), 285-314.

We encourage all to attend what will certainly be a fascinating and
insightful presentation and discussion.  If you would like to join
us, please RSVP your name, title, organization and contact
information to ben.krohmal@cptech.org or 202 332 2670.

Benjamin Krohmal
Research Associate
Consumer Project on Technology
Tel: +1-202-332-2670 ex. 14
Fax: +1-202-332-2673
ben.krohmal@cptech.org