Publication Topic : Access to Medicines
Bill C-393 in the Senate: Amendments to the Patent Act (March 2011)
Bill C-393 passed with a large majority of votes in the House of Commons in Parliament on March 9, 2011 and is now before the Senate of Canada. Bill C-393 would make a number of changes to the sections of the Patent Act that currently constitute Canada’s Access to Medicines Regime (CAMR). The text below … Read more
Human Rights and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
The objective of this paper is to examine the human rights content and impact of the Global Fund’s work in three areas — grant-making processes, grants, and advocacy, especially to see how this unique institution manages the balancing act to which its principles lead. Without pretending to have conducted an exhaustive investigation, we examine some … Read more
Bill C-393: Key features and compliance with Canada’s WTO obligations (March 2011)
It has been incorrectly suggested that Bill C-393’s “one-licence solution” does not comply with Canada’s WTO obligations. Complementing the Legal Network’s earlier brief, this document outlines in summary form the key issues and the provisions of WTO law that permit Canada to simplify the current CAMR as proposed by Bill C-393, while complying with its … Read more
Letter to Trade Ministers re: Safeguarding Access to Medicines in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement
“We, the undersigned civil society organizations, write to you regarding intellectual property provisions in the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA). We are concerned that intellectual property measures that may be included in an eventual agreement could undermine patients’ access to vital medicines, and contravene promises of a new trade model and ’21st century’ agreement.”