Innovation & Development

SouthViews No. 167, 28 March 2018

What we can learn from the Facebook data scandal

By Nakshatra Pachauri

Recent news about the collusion of Facebook, Cambridge Analytica and the Trump election has brought forward one of the more covert and often insufficiently discussed problem of Social Media platforms to the fore. Instead of calling out Facebook alone, I prefer to use Social Media platforms as the problems related to big data enterprise and privacy are as much a Twitter/Whatsapp/Instagram/Snapchat issue as it is for Facebook.

Yet right now Facebook is being attacked from left, right and center by everyone including their own ilk. The question this merits is whether the data problems with the Social Media platforms are only limited to explicitly share data (which Facebook is being blamed for) or is it also about the (more often used) method of implicitly acquiring and utilizing user information? (more…)

Policy Brief 46, March 2018

Outcomes of the 142nd session of the WHO Executive Board

The 142nd session of the WHO Executive Board discussed several critical public health issues including a recommendation to the WHA to approve the General Program of Work (GPW), the adoption of important decisions relating to access to medicines and research and development and a draft resolution on the preparation of the UN High Level Meeting on Tuberculosis.

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SouthViews No. 165, 8 March 2018

The new CPTPP trade pact is much like the old TPP

By Martin Khor

The new agreement that eleven countries are signing on 8 March in Chile in place of the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) is like old wine in a new bottle — without the United States but retaining most of its controversial elements. The TPP seemed to have died when President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of it early last year. But the remaining 11 members have rescued it almost intact, giving it a new name, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). (more…)

SouthViews No. 164, 1 March 2018

EL CASO DE LA HEPATITIS C Y EL PROBLEMA GLOBAL DE ACCESO A LOS MEDICAMENTOS

By Ernesto Samper Pizano

“Los Estados partes en el presente Pacto reconocen el derecho de toda persona al disfrute del más alto nivel de salud física y mental”

(Pacto Internacional de Derechos económicos, sociales y culturales).

El 3 de marzo de 1989, en el aeropuerto de El Dorado de Bogotá, fui víctima de un atentado que casi me cuesta la vida. Por fortuna, recibí una atención rápida y eficaz en la clínica a donde fui trasladado. Lamentablemente, allí mismo, en medio de los afanes por salvarme, recibí una transfusión de sangre infectada por lo que entonces no se conocía como el virus de Hepatitis C, cuyo poder mortífero vino a ser descubierto y estudiado con posterioridad a mi atentado, cuando ya había dejado de ser presidente de Colombia. La eficaz persistencia de mi médico personal, el doctor Alonso Gómez Duque, me llevó a someterme entonces al calvario de un tratamiento para curar la enfermedad. Indagué, en primera instancia, qué tanto daño podía haber ocasionado en mi hígado. Los primeros exámenes de fibro-test, que miden a través de la sangre los niveles de fibrosidad hepática realizados en Francia, arrojaron, en un rango de 0 a 6, una cifra baja pero preocupante, entre 3 y 4, que aconsejaba, según el hepatólogo Víctor Hidrobo, un tratamiento inmediato. Tomé la decisión de hacerlo. Durante seis meses (que a mí me parecieron una eternidad) me apliqué una inyección semanal de interferón –una sustancia utilizada originalmente para la cura del cáncer– que acompañaba con seis pastillas diarias de rivarbirina para “fijar” el interferón, lo que convertía el tratamiento en una especie de quimioterapia ligera con muy molestos efectos colaterales.
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SouthViews No. 162, 2 February 2018

Menace of drug resistance growing

By Anthony D So

This week the Prince Mahidol Awards conference will bring a global spotlight to the threat of emerging infectious diseases. The growing challenge of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) will feature prominently in these discussions. The timing could not be better, but we urgently need to see more action on the part of the UN Interagency Coordination Group on AMR and key intergovernmental agencies gathering in Bangkok. (more…)

IP Negotiations Monitor 23, January 2018

The IP Negotiations Monitor summarizes the latest developments in multilateral and regional fora where intellectual property negotiations are taking place, and informs on upcoming meetings and events.

(Covering period: July – December 2017)

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SouthViews No. 160, 19 January 2018

Heading off Global Action on Access to Medicines in 2018

By Dr. Jorge Bermudez and Dr. Viroj Tangcharoensathien

At the dawn of 2018, political and health leaders must seize the growing momentum and opportunities to tackle the protracted challenges of access to medicines that undermine efforts to save lives and improve health as committed under the Agenda 2030 SDG by all UN member states. (more…)

SouthViews No. 159, 3 January 2018

Critical issues to watch in 2018

By Martin Khor

There are several key social and environmental issues to watch out for in 2018 as they are close to reaching a tipping point, says this preview of the new year by the South Centre’s Executive Director Martin Khor. (more…)

Statement, December 2017

South Centre Statement at the 27th Session of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Standing Committee on the Law of Patents

As this year’s work in the WIPO substantive committees will end with the conclusion of the 27th session of the Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP), we are reminded that next year will mark the tenth anniversary since the SCP had reconvened in 2008 with a focus on developing a balanced work programme on issues relating to the law of patents to also address development and public policy questions that arise in the context of the patent system. The work of the SCP, in this sense, is integral to advancing the WIPO Development Agenda.

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