[Ip-health] AUTM asks members to sign IPI letter to IGWG, as part of pharmaceutical industry funded lobbying initative

[James Love]

AUTM has asked its members, many of which work for U.S. universities, to
sign an IPI letter to the WHO/IGWG, as part of pharmaceutical industry
funded opposed lobbying initiative.

According to AUTM, "Prize systems, a medical R&D treaty, and compulsory
patent pools are  being advocated as alternatives to patents and IP
protections at the April 28 meeting. These solutions could pose a
challenge to our current and very successful system of innovation and
tech transfer."

Jamie

-------- Original Message --------
Subject:        AUTM Update 4.16.08
Date:   Wed, 16 Apr 2008
From:   AUTM Headquarters <info@autm.net>

--------
* Sign the Institute for Policy Innovation's Open Letter to
the World Health Organization*
--------

The Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI) is requesting signatures for
an open letter to the World Health Organization (WHO) in advance of the WHO=
's
Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG) on Public Health, Innovation and
Intellectual Property.

Prize systems, a medical R&D treaty, and compulsory patent pools are
being advocated as alternatives to patents and IP protections at the
April 28 meeting. These solutions could pose a challenge to our current
and very successful system of innovation and tech transfer.
The open letter urges WHO delegates and member governments to bear in
mind the importance of patents and IPRs in the successful development,
commercialization and distribution of medical innovation. This letter
will be published as a full page advertisement in a major international
newspaper a few days before the IGWG process resumes on April 28.
To add your institution to the letter, email IPI President Tom
Giovanetti at _tomg@ipi.org_ <mailto:tomg@ipi.org>. Include your name,
title and affiliation as you wish it to be listed.

----------------
An Open Letter to Delegates to the World Health Organization (WHO)

World Health Organization (WHO) member governments meet this month in
Geneva in a forum called the Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG) on
Public Health, Innovation, and Intellectual Property, whose stated goal
is to create a global action plan to ensure =E2=80=9Cneeds-driven, essentia=
l
health research and development relevant to diseases that
disproportionately affect developing countries . . .=E2=80=9D

We support that goal. New cures and treatments require continued and
increased levels of innovation. The property-rights based system of
innovation is unparalleled in its success in driving innovation. We, the
undersigned, have been motivated by such property-based incentives in
our work, creating new products to improve lives in many ways, around
the world.

Accordingly, we, the undersigned, remind WHO members that:

              * Patients around the world count on continued medical
                innovation;

              * Successful commercialization of science and technology
                transfer depends on effective intellectual property (IP)
                protection, reliance on market forces, and consistent
                government support for science to bring new and better
                medicines to the market; and,

              * Governments have tried, and failed, many times in the
                past to bring drugs to market on their own, without
                private sector support.

We thus call upon the governments participating in the IGWG process to
focus their deliberations on promoting constructive, practical
incentives to complement and expand upon the current property-based
system to promote R&D for diseases which predominantly affect developing
countries. By promoting such constructive measures, instead of unproven
and potentially damaging initiatives, the IGWG members can make a real
and positive contribution to global R&D, including that for diseases of
the developing world.

---------
[AUTM members might want to spend a little time on the IPI website
(http://www.ipi.org/)  to see who they are in bed with.  You might start
with their list of op-eds.
http://www.ipi.org/ipi/IPIPressReleases.nsf/Op-Ed%5Cby%
20Author?OpenView


--
_____________________________
James Love, Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
http://www.keionline.org, mailto:james.love@keionline.org
voice +1.202.332.2670, fax +1.202.332.2673, US mobile +1.202.361.3040, Gene=
va mobile +41.76.413.6584

When everyone thinks the same, no one thinks.  Bill Walton remix of Walter =
Lippmann