[Ip-health] Former WIPO employee (now with PhRMA) moonlights as BIO bouncer

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

http://www.keionline.org/index.php?option=3Dcom_jd-wp&Itemid=3D39&p=3D87


Thiru, from Geneva | WHO IGWG
Former WIPO employee (now with PhRMA) moonlights as BIO bouncer
November 7th, 2007

Richard Kjeldgaard, a former Senior Counsellor in the Biotechnology
and Genetic Resources Division of the World Intellectual Property
Organization (WIPO) and now employed by the U.S. based Pharmaceutical
Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) performed his role as
=93bouncer=94 admirably today at a luncheon organized by the Biotechnology
Industry Organization. The lunch was held at the pavilion of the Hotel
School in close proximity to the labyrinthine Palais des Nations where
the WHO Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation
and Intellectual Property (IGWG) is meeting. Representatives from
Medecins sans Frontieres, Health Action International, Universities
Allied for Essential Medicines and Knowledge Ecology International
sought to gain entrance to the event on =93Global Health Solutions:
Solutions for Diseases Affecting Developing Countries=94. The ostensible
reason provided by Richard Kjeldgaard for barring entrance to the
luncheon was the lack of seating for NGOs (of the public interest
variety).

Panelists at the event included Jana Tom (University of California
Systems), Ted Roumel (University of Maryland), Mark Rohrbaugh (US
National Institutes of Health), and Professor Diran Makinde (West
Africa Biosciences Network).

One wonders what nuggets of wisdom BIO wished to communicate under a
secret veil to government delegates. Time will only tell.