CPTech Brownbag Events

Michael Abramowicz on "Perfecting Patent Prizes".

2006-11-28T08:27:00.000-08:00

CPTech is hosting a brown bag lunch seminar by Michael Abramowicz on "Perfecting Patent Prizes."

Who: George Washington University Law Professor Michael Abramowicz

What: Brown Bag Lunch on "Perfecting Patent Prizes"

When: 12:30-2:00pm on Tuesday, December 12th

Where: CPTech - 1621 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington DC 20009.

Details:

Several recent brown bag speakers have discussed the potential of using prizes in lieu of patents to promote medical innovation. While reaction to such proposals has been positive, some have expressed the concern that with innovation prize systems, "the devil is in the details." In this brown bag seminar, Michael Abramowicz, author of the lengthy article "Perfecting Patent Prizes (see link below)," will offer his views on sticky issues in the implementation of an innovation prize system. He argues that there is no perfect formula or algorithm for determining the size of prizes, but that a prize system is nonetheless worth pursuing because it could increase social welfare significantly by eliminating deadweight loss. Professor Abramowicz will present his proposals for implementing an innovation prize system and discuss what he considers to be the strengths and weakness of the system proposed in Senator-elect Bernie Sanders' Medical Innovation Prize Fund Act (H.R. 417).

Professor Abramowicz is a graduate of Yale Law School, where he served as executive editor of the Yale Law Journal. After graduating, he clerked for the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. He teaches and does research on intellectual property, and is published in journals including the California Law Review, Columbia Law Review, Iowa Law Review, Michigan Law Review, Stanford Law Review, UCLA Law
Review, University of Chicago Law Review, Vanderbilt Law Review, Yale Journal on Regulation, and Yale Law Journal.

Michael's presentation will be based on his 2003 paper:
"Perfecting Patent Prizes," Vanderbilt Law Review (56): 115.
http://www.law.gmu.edu/faculty/papers/wpDetail.php?wpID=120

If you would like to join us for Michael Abramowicz's brown bag seminar, please RSVP your name, title, organization and contact details to: ben.krohmal@cptech.org or 202.332.2670.

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

Next Steps and Strategies on Bilateral Free Trade Agreements

2006-11-07T11:30:00.000-08:00

The Consumer Project on Technology (CPTech) is hosting a post-
election brown bag lunch seminar and strategy session on "Next Steps
and Strategies on Bilateral Free Trade Agreements."

Date:  Thursday, November 16th, 2006.
Time:  12-1:30pm
Venue:  1621 Connecticut Avenue Suite 500, Washington, DC 20009

The session will feature brief presentations on the results of
previous FTA's, ongoing FTA negotiations, and possible future
directions by the following panelists:

Jamie Love of CPTech
Rob Weissman of Essential Action
Rohit Malpani of Oxfam
Gaelle Krikorian of CRESP,
Fabiana Jorge of MFJ international,
Asia Russell of Health GAP,
Brook Baker of Health GAP, and
Matthew Kavanagh of Global Justice

Following the presentations there will be general discussion and
coordination on strategies for addressing FTA's in light of the
results of the U.S. mid-term elections and the possible expiration of
TPA in July.

This will be an important session for those working on issues in
trade and access to medicine.

If you would like to join us for the FTA brown bag, please RSVP your
name, title, and organization to ben.krohmal@cptech.org or 202 332 2673.

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

Compulsory Licensing in Ghana - the Continuing Barriers to Affordable Medicines

2006-10-13T13:26:00.000-07:00

The Consumer Project on Technology (CPTech) is hosting a seminar by
Noah Novogrodsky on "Compulsory Licensing in Ghana - the Continuing Barriers to Affordable Medicines"

Date: Tuesday November 7, 2006
Time: 12:00-2pm
Venue: 1621 Connecticut Avenue Suite 500, Washington, DC 20009
RSVP: judit.rius (at) cptech.org or 202 332 2670

Professor Noah Novogrodsky will present on "Compulsory Licensing in Ghana - the Continuing Barriers to Affordable Medicines". His presentation will describe the painfully slow effort to implement the WTO August 30th 2003 Decision through Canadian export legislation and Ghana's Patent Act.

Professor Novogrodsky is a Visiting Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center and the Director of the University of Toronto Faculty of Law International Human Rights Program. Noah Novogrodsky joined the University of Toronto Faculty of Law in 2002 and in September 2003, he founded Canada's first international human rights clinic at the Faculty. For each of the past three years, Professor Novogrodsky has taught a seminar titled “The HIV/AIDS in Africa Project” in connection with the work of Stephen Lewis, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on HIV/AIDS in Africa. Professor Novogrodsky has also been an organizer of the University of Toronto-based Access to Drugs Initiative. Professor Novogrodsky’s current research agenda focuses on the HIV/AIDS pandemic as a threat to human security.

“Is a Medical Innovation Prize Fund Compatible with Patient-Based Evidence?”

2006-09-25T10:26:00.000-07:00

The Consumer Project on Technology (CPTech) is hosting a brown bag
lunch seminar by Peter Pitts: “Is a Medical Innovation Prize Fund
Compatible with Patient-Based Evidence?”

Date: Thursday, November 9th, 2006

Time: 12-1:30pm

Venue: 1621 Connecticut Avenue Suite 500, Washington, DC 20009

Recent CPTech seminars have favorably discussed proposals to promote
pharmaceutical innovation through a public fund rather than market
monopolies. On November 9th, Peter Pitts will present an important
criticism of these proposals.

Peter Pitts is perhaps best know to members of this list as one of
the “wonks” at the pharmaceutical blog Drugwonks.com. He was the
Chief Messaging Officer at the FDA from 2002-2004, and he is co-
founder of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest. Formerly
a senior fellow for health care studies at the Pacific Research
Institute, he is currently senior vice president for health affairs
at Manning, Selvage & Lee.

Pitts notes that proposed medical innovation prize funds would reward
pharmaceutical innovations in proportion to the incremental health
benefits they provide. However, Pitts will argue, evidence of
incremental health benefits provided by new drugs is expensive and
difficult to obtain and often inadequate. Trends toward
pharmacogentic technology and improved diagnostic tools suggest that
determining the overall health benefits of future pharmaceutical
developments will be even more difficult, if not impossible, as new
drugs will be evaluated on a basis more narrowly tailored to
individual patients than to the population as a whole. As a result,
compensation for pharmaceutical innovators is most appropriately
determined by the spending choices of well-informed consumers who
know their own medical situations best.

We encourage all to attend what will certainly be an insightful and
lively 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.

Patent Buy-Outs for Global Disease Innovation

2006-09-15T13:58:00.000-07:00

The Consumer Project on Technology (CPTech) is hosting a seminar by
Kevin Outterson on "Patent Buy-Outs for Global Disease Innovation."

Many of you received the initial invitation when this event was
scheduled for May 10th and then cancelled. It has now been rescheduled:

Date: Tuesday October 10, 2006
Time: 12:30-2pm
Venue: 1621 Connecticut Avenue Suite 500, Washington, DC 20009

Kevin Outterson is an Associate Professor of Law at West Virginia University. He is also a member of the American Health Lawyer's Association's FDA Task Force. In 2004, Governor Wise appointed him to a 4 year term with the West Virginia Pharmaceutical Cost Management Council. Some of his professional papers include, "Patent Buy-Outs for Global Disease Innovations for low and middle-income countries" and "Fair followers: Expanding access to generic pharmaceuticals for low-income populations."

Professor Outterson's presentation will discuss the concept of patent buy-outs to facilitate generic competition.

Some 80% to 90% of the global sales of patented pharmaceuticals occur in the 30 wealthy countries which are members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), roughly similar to the World Bank's definition of 29 high-income countries. Pharmaceutical markets for patented products largely follow the money. The mismatch between global pharmaceutical markets and global disease burdens leads to an interesting opportunity. Patented pharmaceuticals could be offered to more than 84% of the world's population at generic prices. (Only high-income country patients would bear pharmaceutical patent rents).

The gain in health from increasingly affordable pharmaceuticals would be considerable. The primary disadvantage of this plan would be a quite small reduction in global R&D cost recovery; but even this small deficit could be restored to the companies through a carefully designed patent buy-out mechanism.

Social Justice and New Approaches to Promoting Pharmaceutical Innovation

2006-09-15T13:24:00.000-07:00

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

Date: Tuesday, October 17th, 2006
Time: 12-1:30pm
Venue: 1621 Connecticut Avenue Suite 500, Washington, DC 20009

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’s 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’s 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,
“The 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 — and its imposition a human rights violation on account of the avoidable mortality and morbidity it foreseeably produces.”

From “Human Rights and Global Health: A Research Program” 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.