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In December 2018, the National Institute of Standards and Technologies (NIST) (a part of the Department of Commerce) published a draft Green Paper, titled “Return on Investment Initiative for Unleashing American Innovation” (NIST Special Publication 1234). A copy of the draft Green Paper is available here: https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.SP.1234 The draft Green Paper was published after the launch of an April 2018 initiative, “Unleashing American Innovation Symposium” and followed four public hearings and a request for comments noticed on May 1, 2018 (83 FR 19052). The initial comment period closed July 30, 2018. UACT drafted a letter to raise the alarm in members of Congress that anRead More →

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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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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 →

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On October 10, 2017, UACT and 22 NGOs working on cancer in South Africa, submitted comments to the South Africa on the Draft South Africa IP Policy. A PDF of the letter is available here: UACT-S.Africa-IPpolicy-10Oct2017 The text of the submission follows: October 10, 2017 The Honorable Dr. Rob Davies Minister of Trade and Industry 77 Meintjies Street Sunnyside, Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa Re: Draft National Policy on Intellectual Property Dear Minister Davies, We write to you on behalf of the Union for Affordable Cancer Treatment (UACT), a union of people affected by cancer, their family members and friends, people who take care of peopleRead More →

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Today, Manon Ress, Founder and Acting Director of the Union for Affordable Cancer Treatment, delivered a letter to 17 Republican Senators, urging them to vote no on the Graham-Cassidy “health care” bill. UACT visited Senate leadership, including Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-TX), as well as the original authors of the bill, Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC). Additional letters were delivered to the GOP members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, and to key Senators who could stop this bill. The full copy of UACT’s letter can be found copied below and isRead More →