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On December 12, 2017, the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP), a United Nations-backed public health organisation with the mission to increase access to HIV, hepatitis C and tuberculosis treatments in low- and middle-income countries, made a welcome announcement for cancer patients: the expansion of MedsPaL. MedsPaL is a database created to provide information on the intellectual property status of priority medicines in developing countries, to patented treatments on the World Health Organization (WHO)’s Model List of Essential Medicines (EML), and its expansion is certainly a step in the right direction.   UACT was encouraged to see that data on patents for certain medicines to treat chronicRead More →

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In: Negotiations

On December 8, 2017, UACT submitted a letter to the US, Canadian, and Mexican representatives of the NAFTA re-negotiations. Please find below the full text of the letter. A PDF version is available here. Union for Affordable Cancer Treatment 1621 Connecticut Avenue NW Suite 500 Washington, DC 20009 Tel.: 202.332.2670 www.uact.org December 8, 2017 Dear NAFTA Delegates, The Union for Affordable Cancer Treatment (UACT), created in 2014, is a union of people affected by cancer, their family members and friends, people who take care of people with cancer, health care professionals and cancer researchers committed to increasing access to effective cancer treatment and care. WeRead More →

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In: Legislation

On November 17, 2017, UACT submitted written comments the US Food and Drug Administration’s request for comments concerning, “Administering the Hatch-Waxman Amendments: Ensuring a Balance Between Innovation and Access.” The call for comments followed a public meeting hosted by the FDA in July 2017. The comments submitted by UACT call for the FDA to support three measures that would help increase access to cancer treatments and other medical technologies.  These measures include compulsory licensing as leverage for the proposed Medicare negotiation powers, the FDA to require greater transparency of R&D costs as a condition of marketing approval, and support for feasibility studies to explore businessRead More →

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In: News

For the Chair of the Curie Institute in Paris, Prof. Thierry Philip, high prices of cancer medicines will soon be unsustainable. What should be done? His suggestions: transparency, delinkage and patients’ involvement. On October 24, 2017, Eric Favereau of Liberation interviewed the eminent Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Curie Institute in Paris, Professor Thierry Philip. The focus of the interview was how to control the unsustainable increase of cancer drug prices. The journalist asked many interesting questions that need to be asked, among them: was Prof. Thierry Philip worried about the cost of cancer drugs today? What would he recommend we doRead More →

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In: Legislation

On November 6, 2017, UACT sent a letter to the US Congress, supporting legislation to permit the United States to negotiate prices for drugs reimbursed by the Medicare program, but also ask the Congress to include language on compulsory licensing of patents, in order to ensure that when there is a dispute over the price, the monopoly is put at risk, rather than the patient.   The letter also asks Congress to enact measures to enhance the transparency of R&D costs and drug manufacturing know-how, and under feasibility studies of delinkage. A copy of the letter is available as a PDF, here , and reads as follows: NovemberRead More →