- Hello Jeff - First of all, maybe if Indonesia spent less
money and resources on the military and weapons they might have money to
treat H5N1 cases. If it is true, that they are holding DNA sequence samples
of bird flu victims back as a protest, and not doing so to "hide"
a strain that is able to infect humans with ease, then we need to make
it plain to them that they are endangering the entire world by their actions.
We need to see ALL samples from Indonesia because the country has a high
rate of human cases and cases that appeared in clusters indicating human-to-human
transmission. The world has a right to those samples.
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- IF they refuse to share the sequences, then we must protect
the world, or at least ourselves, by "quarantining" the nation
of Indonesia. Of course, it won't happen as Washington and other countries
around the world would not want to anger that most populous Muslim country.
Therefore, if they refuse to share, and a human form of H5N1 has developed
in Indonesia, it would not be long before an infected Indonesian steps
on a plane and heads to the US, EU or other country around the globe and
beginning the global pandemic. I find it incredible that the WHO and Indonesia
are "negotiating" while bird flu is "mutating." Bird
Flu is wasting NO TIME in its rapid fire development of a human form of
the itself while the WHO is dragging its feet in these delicate negotiations.
Shameful.
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- Patty
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- WHO Report Explores Patent Issues Regarding H5N1 Viruses
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- (CIDRAP News) - The World Health Organization (WHO)
yesterday released a report on patenting issues related to influenza viruses,
following up on a resolution adopted by the World Health Assembly in May
to address the concerns of Indonesia and other developing countries about
access to pandemic flu vaccines and treatments.
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- The report was prepared by the Geneva-based World Intellectual
Property Organization (WIPO) and will be presented at a WHO intergovernmental
meeting on virus sharing and access to vaccines, which will take place
in Geneva from Nov 20 through 23. Like the WHO, WIPO is a United Nations
agency.
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- Indonesia stopped sending H5N1 samples to the WHO last
December as a protest, saying the country couldn't afford the vaccines
that drug companies would develop from the virus samples they submitted.
Since then Indonesia has shared only a few samples.
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- Indonesia's action raised the possibility that it and
other countries affected by H5N1 flu might claim legal ownership of H5N1
isolates. Researchers need H5N1 samples to track the virus's evolution
and drug susceptibility and to develop vaccines.
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- The 41-page WHO report emphasizes that its purpose is
to provide technical background information on patent issues related to
influenza viruses, not to address questions such as benefit sharing, virus
surveillance, or vaccine production.
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- The pace of patent activity surrounding H5N1 and other
avian flu viruses has picked up dramatically, the report says. The first
patent applications was made in 1983, but 35% of all patent requests referring
to avian flu viruses or H5N1 were made in the first 9 months of this year.
"There is considerable diversity in this activity, with publications
from over 100 different actors representing a mix of private firms, individual
inventors, public sector institutions, and government agencies," the
report notes.
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- In reviewing general patent law principles, the authors
state that naturally occurring substances that are not altered by human
interventions are not considered patentable. "Hence, a wild flu strain
as such would be inherently unpatentable-put simply, it cannot be seen
as an 'invention', the fit subject matter of a patent," the report
says.
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- Also, there is no international patent, the authors say.
A Patent Cooperation Treaty exists to administer international patent applications,
but to enforce patent rights, a party must actively seek patents though
a country's national system or a regional group such as the European Patent
Office.
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- The authors, while not making definitive legal assessments,
highlight several observations. Among them:
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- * Early, open publication of the gene sequence of
a newly isolated flu virus strain would preclude patent protection, but
would facilitate broad-based research and development.
- * Sequencing a gene using regular laboratory techniques
is not likely to be considered inventive or nonobvious enough to warrant
a patent.
- * Unless there is a clearly disclosed and defined
new and useful function, most countries deny patent protection for gene
sequences.
- * Initial searches did not find any patents for wild
viruses, though there were several for newly engineered genetic materials
such as synthetic virus-like particles (VLPs), methods of producing them,
and vaccines produced from them.
- * Patent rights are not absolute. For example, many
national patent laws allow researchers to use patented inventions for certain
purposes related to research but not to commercial application.
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- The authors write that future editions of their report
will include clearer depictions of patenting scenarios along the vaccine
development pipeline, such as inventions that incorporate genetic material
from flu viruses and new vaccine production technologies.
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- In the years ahead, the patent system will face several
complex challenges, the report says. For example, the system will have
a role in clarifying technology partnerships, will induce investments in
vaccine production by affording exclusivity in certain instances, and will
provide greater transparency in vaccine research and development.
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- In line with the resolution adopted by the World Health
Assembly in May, a WHO working group of 24 countries has been working on
several projects, such as drafting standardized terms and conditions for
sharing of viruses and devising oversight mechanisms. According to previous
news reports, finalized documents will be submitted at the WHO's intergovernmental
meeting in November.
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- http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza/general/news/oct1707patent.html
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- Patricia A. Doyle DVM, PhD Bus Admin, Tropical Agricultural Economics
Univ of West Indies Please visit my "Emerging Diseases" message board at:
http://www.emergingdisease.org/phpbb/index.php Also my new website:
http://drpdoyle.tripod.com/
- Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa
- Go with God and in Good Health
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