[Ip-health] Analysis of Venezuela patents & medicines announcements

[peter maybarduk]

--
[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
This week, several major English-language news outlets, including the
Associated Press, Reuters, Bloomberg and NPR, along with several
niche publications, reported on the Venezuelan government's announced
plans to review patent rules, toward removing obstacles to domestic
manufacturing and research.

Because the reports are brief and the subject technical, because the
government has announced only limited details, and because a few of
the reports rely on statements by members of the political opposition
(which seem to have exaggerated the content of the announcements),
the reports on the whole may be somewhat confusing.

A clarifying source is Venezuela's intellectual property office,
SAPI, which has posted several Spanish-language press releases on the
subject this week, offering a little more information on the
government's plans and priorities:
http://www.sapi.gov.ve/

The government has not yet announced a detailed policy, but rather,
its plans to study the issue =96 and so some of the principles
articulated thus far may change.   Taken together, SAPI's releases
and news reports suggest:

* The government intends to conduct a comprehensive review of
Venezuela's patent system, and envisions a broad public discussion.
* Promoting access to medical technology and generic medicine
production capacity are key priorities of this review.
* Eduardo Sam=E1n, the Minister charged to head the review, hopes to
propose amendments to Venezuela's industrial property law (covering
patents), or enact a new law in its place.
* Venezuela may challenge key specific patents in coming years.
* SAPI has spent five years scanning patents and will now publish
them online in a public database.
* The government plans to host an international meeting on patents
and access to medicines.

References to international treaty obligations, traditional and
indigenous knowledge, plants, weak patents, and products priced
beyond the reach of most Venezuelans may suggest government intent to
pursue policies that are both access-oriented and compliant with the
WTO's TRIPS Agreement.   (This is inference, not fact, based on
limited and early statements by SAPI.)

I have not seen any government reference to a plan to "abolish" patents.

This is from the first government release on the subject, which I
posted to listserves a few days ago:
"The President of the Republic, Hugo Ch=E1vez Fr=EDas, speaking from his
"Al=F3 Presidente" television program Sunday June 14, asked his
ministers to study the subject of patents in detail, toward stopping
the privatization of knowledge by different national and
transnational businesses.  The President entrusted the matter to the
Minister of Public Power in Commerce, Eduardo Sam=E1n.  . . . Sam=E1n is
a professional in the subject of pharmacy,  and knows well the grave
problem of patents impeding the production of generic medicines
necessary to save lives, unless costly royalties are paid to
laboratories."  http://www.sapi.gov.ve/  (translation mine).

Eduardo Sam=E1n is an advocate of open-source software, and SAPI has a
program to distribute non-proprietary software in public institutions
(including schools):
http://www.sapi.gob.ve//content/view/219/121/

English language news articles on Venezuela's announcements thus far
include:

NPR's Marketplace

Associated Press

Bloomberg

Reuters

The New American (conservative U.S. publication)

El Universal (Caracas-based newspaper sympathetic to opposition)

Relatedly, here's a May 5 story on a new government-sponsored
pharmaceutical production facility in Caracas:
Venezuelanalysis (web publication sympathetic to government)

---
Peter Maybarduk
Attorney
Essential Action
Access to Medicines Project