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Experts in Health, Science and Intellectual Property Meet in Paris to Debate Needed Reform in IP Laws
9 November 2008
For more information, please contact:
Coimbra Sirica: csirica@burnesscommunicatons.com, +1 631 836 3181; +33 (0)6 10 37 04 96
or Elisa Henry: ehenry@theinnovationpartnership.org, +33 (0)6.13.69.86.22
UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL 11 AM LOCAL TIME,
THURSDAY, 13 NOVEMBER (10 AM GMT)
PRESS BRIEFING: PARIS THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 11 AM to Noon, SCIENCES PO PARIS, SALLE DU CONSEIL, 13 RUE DE L'UNIVERSITÉ, 75007 PARIS
Researchers to report on study of Myriad's hotly-contested patents for breast cancer genes, and on unproductive efforts to protect traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples in developing regions
Note to editors: For more information and for embargoed press release and studies, please contact Katy Lenard at klenard@burnesscommunications.com.
The world's major pharmaceutical companies recently gathered in Geneva to announce actions they would take to improve access to new technologies for treating and preventing HIV in the poorest nations. But industry leaders failed to embrace the fundamental changes that will be needed to end the inequities they propose to address. To address this and other signs of resistance to reforming the global system of intellectual property (IP), international biotech and IP experts will meet in Paris on November 13-14, at the invitation of Sciences Po and The Innovation Partnership, to discuss the impact of an outdated system protecting intellectual property and debate the shape of what should take its place. Speakers will present new case studies, including one that documents the mistakes made by a US company in protecting and enforcing patent rights on breast cancer genes in France and other European nations. A second study-in Brazil, Kenya and Northern Canada-reports on the paralyzing impact of poorly designed systems of intellectual property rights on efforts to help indigenous peoples develop their traditional knowledge..
The following are among the questions to be addressed during the press briefing:
- Are IP laws and regulations fostering or inhibiting collaboration among groups that should be working to promote innovation and access to life-saving products?
- Who are the winners and losers under the current IP system?
- How can IP reforms decrease the dangers of biopiracy in poor nations?
- What role should political leaders play in enforcing collaboration and broad dissemination of technologies?
- Will France and other European nations win out over Myriad Genetics and its efforts to dominate the market in licensing tests for inheritable susceptibility to breast cancer?
- How can Europe influence US patenting practices in seeking reforms to the global IP system, and
- How might patients, policymakers, and companies-in industrialized and developing nations-benefit from a new system for patenting discoveries in biotechnology?
WHEN: THURSDAY, 13 NOVEMBER, 11 AM to NOON
WHERE: SCIENCES PO PARIS, SALLE DU CONSEIL, 13 RUE DE L'UNIVERSITÉ, 75007 PARIS
WHO: Prof. Michel Vivant, Sciences Po (modérateur)
Prof. Alain Gallochat, expert en PI et conseiller du ministère Français de la recherche
Prof. Richard Gold, The Innovation Partnership (TIP); Université McGill
Prof. Tania Bubela, The Innovation Partnership, University of Alberta
Dominique Stoppa-Lyonnet, Institut Pasteur