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Kenya pauses, then swims with the (compulsory license) tide

Further to my recent post and scorecard, I recently found out from IP Watch that the Kenyan parliament recently debated and rejected a bill which would have stopped the government from issuing Compulsory Licenses. Here are some quotes from IPWatch:

"Opponents of amendments to Section 80 of the act said that if they are ratified, they would stop the government from being able to issue compulsory licenses for local manufacturers to produce drugs for public health emergencies, such as antiretrovirals for HIV/AIDS patients and antibiotics. The changes would also compel the government to negotiate directly with patent holders to obtain needed medicines.

“The amendments have not been thought through,” Nairobi-based IP lawyer Robert Lettington said. “It is not a good idea to cut off future options to respond to emergencies.”"

"Section 80 of Kenya’s Industrial Property Act 2001 enshrined the compulsory licensing provisions in national law. There have been repeated efforts to delete these provisions, initially by the state-run Kenya Industrial Property Institute, apparently because it offered no compensation to pharmaceutical firms whose products could be produced, under compulsory license, by state-approved companies, lawyers have said."

Many developing countries are not only issuing more compulsory licenses, but seriously considering whether to enact a section equivalent to India's now famed s 3(d).

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