Archive

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A NEW pan-European pharmaceuticals company called Consilient Health has been launched in Brussels to help pharmaceutical companies from the eastern and southern European countries seeking membership of the European Union to integrate with its market and regulatory structures.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE FINAL stage of the new EU procedure to approve orphan drugs has been completed, with the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products, (EMEA), publishing the first summaries of positive opinions regarding these specialist medicines. Under the procedure, which promotes the development of orphan drugs by granting pharmaceutical companies special intellectual property rights, publication follows official designation of a medicine by the European Commission.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Bank is lending China US$104 million to treat tuberculosis sufferers, strengthening its National TB Control Programme. The money will be complemented by a UK Pounds 28.3 million grant from the UK’s Department for International Development, which will help Beijing manage this expansion, notably by allowing the bank loan to be on-lent to China’s provinces at a concessional rate.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A CLINICAL trials programme aimed at uniting EU and developing country research teams in creating medicines to treat AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in the third world was to be launched this month. The European Commission wants to dedicate Euro 200 million to the European-Developing Countries Clinical Trials Programme in the next Sixth Framework Programme for research.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SOCIAL care organisations have been asked to comment on a green paper issued by the European Commission, which calls for guidance over whether common European Union rules regarding the return of illegal immigrants to their home countries should be made binding on EU Member States.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has lost a legal bid to suppress the payment of state aid by the French government to a cooperative agency that handles small-scale exports of French language books. The European Court of Justice ruled that the Commission had failed to understand that the subsidies did not help the Centre d’Exportation du Livre Français compete in the general book trade.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EXPORT assistance will be given to Lusophone countries by the World Intellectual Property Organisation to help them establish collective copyright management societies. It is part of cooperation deal signed between WIPO and Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries, whose members are Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, and Sao Tome and Principe.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and the League of Arab States have agreed to boost cooperation on improving intellectual property standards in Arab countries, especially copyright. The two bodies have agreed to help organise conferences on copyright in the region, especially regarding the Internet.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE WALLACE Reader’s Digest Funds, the controlling shareholder of Reader’s Digest Association Inc. is to relinquish control of the venerable publishing house, which will henceforth, not be controlled by its founders for first time in its history. Under a deal involving large institutional investors, Reader’s Digest founders, DeWitt and Lila Wallace will sell 3.6 million of their 6.2 million shares.…

BY MARK ROWE
THE EAST Asian rights holder for cartoon characters such as Garfield is to lower prices for copyright products including books and comics in a groundbreaking attempt to combat rampant counterfeiting and piracy in Thailand. RM Licensing, which is based in Hong Kong, has said that the prices of licensed items will never be more than five per cent higher than the market price of fake products in Bangkok.…