Access to medicine in developing countries

Silke Trommer, researcher for the Centre of Excellence in Global Governance Research at the University of Helsinski, Finland, in a separate panel about access to medicines in developing and least-developing countries warned against provisions in free trade agreements.

In several agreements, she said, the scope of patent protection is extended by patenting the new use of an old product, for example, in what is called evergreening of existing patents.

http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/2009/10/11/wto-forum-bypassing-international-agreements-may-hamper-medicines-access/

Open Source in Biology

Interesting development here:

This kind of collaborative is needed, Friend contends, because biologists are starting to see how vast networks of genes get perturbed in complex diseases like cancer, diabetes, and multiple sclerosis. All of this data is too complex for any individual, or team of scientists—even at a place as wealthy as Merck—to fully grasp.

http://www.xconomy.com/seattle/2009/10/06/sage-bionetworks-biologys-open-source-spark-snags-major-donation-from-quintiles/