Malebona Precious Matsoso, b.PharM., is Director, Public Health Innovation and Intellectual Property, World Health Organization, Avenue Appia 20, 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland (matsosom@ who.int). The author has declared no potential conflicts of interest. Copyright © 2009, American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc., and International Pharmaceutical Federation. All rights reserved. 1079-...

Cathodoluminescence (CL) analysis using a MonoCLTM system has recently been described as a technique for use with scanning electron microscopy to complement existing solid state spectroscopic and imaging tools that are used to support the understanding, development and manufacture of medicinal products.1,2 This may seem unremarkable to the many existing users of CL spectroscopy and imaging, but...

The Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) contains major concessions to the US pharmaceutical industry that may undermine the egalitarian principles and operation of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and substantially increase the costs of medicinal drugs to Australian consumers. AUSFTA's approach to the PBS excessively emphasises the need to reward manufacturers of "inno...

Technological or institutional change has proven to be big cause for failure of established firms and history is full of such examples. The stregnhthening of patent laws as a result of TRIPs (Trade Related intellectual property rights) agreement represents such a institutional change for knowledge based industries from developing countries. This represents a radical break with the past in which...

Since the adoption of the WTO-TRIPS Agreement in 1994, there has been significant controversy over the impact of pharmaceutical patent protection on the access to medicines in the developing world. In addition to the market exclusivity provided by patents, the pharmaceutical industry has also sought to further extend their monopolies by advocating the need for additional 'regulatory' protection...

haptoglobin (hp) is a mammalian serum glycoprotein showing a genetic polymorphism with three types, 1-1, 2-2 and 1-2. hp appears to conserve the recycling of heme-iron by forming an essentially irreversible but non-covalent complex with hemoglobin which is released into the plasma by erythrocyte lysis. as an important consequence, haptoglobin-hemoglobin complex (hp-hb) shows considerable antiox...

Co-crystallization alters the molecular interactions and composition of pharmaceutical materials, and is considered better alternatives to optimize drug properties. Co-crystals consists of API and a stoichiometric amount of a pharmaceutically acceptable co-crystal former. Pharmaceutical co-crystals are nonionic supramolecular complexes and can be used to address physical property issues such as...

The Commission on Intellectual Property, Innovation and Public Health (CIPIH) was given the task of reviewing existing research and development (R&D) efforts, examining the role of intellectual prope erty (IP) in stimulating innovation, and to make concrete proposals for action by national and international stakeholders, both public and private, to encourage R&D for diseases that disproportione...

A new and comprehensive treaty on intellectual property rights was established in 1994, within the framework of the World Trade Organization (WTO). It is called the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights-the TRIPS agreement for short. It requires all WTO member countries to adopt in their laws minimum standards of protection for patents, trademarks, copyrights and ot...

Biotechnological innovation is gaining increased recognition as an important tool for improving global health. The challenge, however, lies in defining the role of technology transfer to develop therapies for diseases prevalent in developing countries. During the past decade, a large disparity emerged between the developed and developing world in accessing affordable medicines because of the ph...