Archive

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union has launched a plan to break the World Trade Organisation deadlock over changes to its TRIPS regime (trade related aspects of intellectual property rights), which would allow developing countries to licence imported generic drugs in emergencies, while protecting the global pharmaceutical sector.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A REPORT on the international conventions and European and national laws controlling the use of cannabis as a medicine, has been released by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction. The paper offers a legal analysis of the options and limitations of using medicinal cannabis and its derivatives in the EU, as well as noting current practice.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EMEA’s Committee for Proprietary Medicinal Products has given a positive opinion on a range of insulin medicines, namely Actrapid, Actraphane, Insulatard, Mixtard, Monotard, Protophane, Ultratard and Velosulin. The committee also began risk-benefit reviews of gatifloxacin, (containing Bonoq, Crispin, Urobonoq, Urocrispin and associated product names) and nimesulide containing medicinal products (Aulin, Mesulide, Nimed and associated product names).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Health Organisation is advising countries experiencing a rise in resistance amongst malaria mosquitos to conventional medicines, such as chloroquine, to start promoting new combination treatment. These Artemisinin-Based Combination Therapies are derived in part from a Chinese herb, killing malaria parasites very fast, allowing patients to recover rapidly with few side effects.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products has asked for comments from the pharmaceutical industry on its draft regulations covering the manufacture or the import of medicines that are still under investigation. These would insist that applications for authorisation should include information on qualified persons involved in the project as well as the site where manufacturing and importation is to take place, as well as other data.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
Anna Porter owner of Canada’s Key Porter Books, is considering buying publishing houses owned by General Publishing Co. Ltd. They include Stoddart Publishing and House of Anansi Press. Ms Porter however said that she would stay clear of the distribution portion of the company.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
CANADIAN publishers will be forced into bankruptcy if they do not quickly get paid the money owed to them by the distribution arm of General Publishing Co. Ltd, owner of Stoddart Publishing and House of Anansi Press, according to a recent Ontario Superior Court document.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
CANADA’S Indigo Books & Music Inc. has improved its financial performance for the year end in March with a reported loss of CAN$47.9 million, a 52 per cent improvement from a year earlier when the bookseller lost CAN$84.5 million.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
CANADA’S biggest publishers have been approached by representatives of the eBay Canada auction web site, asking them to use their Internet platform to sell their books directly to consumers.

Its move comes as e-commerce giant Amazon.com is finalising plans to launch a service this summer that is specifically tailored for Canadian readers, instead of them using a standard north American site.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Parliament has called for a European Union book-pricing directive protecting existing national systems from being undermined by cross-border sales from Member States which have no such controls.

In a formal motion, it has called upon the European Commission to propose this law, although the EU bureaucracy can ignore the appeal if it chooses; under EU treaties, the parliament cannot itself table legislation.…