[Viva] Fwd: FW: Update: Campaign to reform Canada's law on compulsory licensing of pharmaceuticals for export (March 4, 2011)

[Denise Becker]

This is great news - Bill C-393 has been revised and now there will be a
vote in the House on Wednesday evening.  Please try to keep up pressure for
MPs to attend the vote.  There is a petition to sign below.
Denise

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Richard Elliott <relliott at aidslaw.ca>
Date: Fri, Mar 4, 2011 at 5:18 PM
Subject: FW: Update: Campaign to reform Canada's law on compulsory licensing
of pharmaceuticals for export (March 4, 2011)
To: dbecker106 at gmail.com


Wanted to make sure you saw this!

R.



*From:* Richard Elliott
*Sent:* March 4, 2011 5:54 PM
*To:* IP-health (ip-health at lists.keionline.org); Health GAP list (
healthgap at lists.critpath.org)
*Subject:* Update: Campaign to reform Canada's law on compulsory licensing
of pharmaceuticals for export (March 4, 2011)



*CANADIAN HIV/AIDS LEGAL NETWORK*

* *

*REFORM CAMR CAMPAIGN*

*Update – March 4, 2011*

* *

*Major progress on campaign for Bill C-393 to fix Canada’s Access to
Medicines Regime; final vote to come in House of Commons on Wednesday, March
9*



Last night, Bill C-393 – the private member’s bill to fix Canada’s broken
Access to Medicines Regime (CAMR) – was up for its final hour of debate in
the House of Commons.  The evening brought welcome news for the ongoing
campaign to fix CAMR – building momentum and enthusiasm as we press forward
towards the final vote on the bill in the House of Commons, currently
scheduled for this coming *Wednesday, March 9th at 6:00 p.m. EST*.



Here is where things stand at this time:



·         Last night, the House of Commons adopted two motions from the New
Democratic Party.  As a result, the “one-licence solution” — which forms the
core of the reforms to streamline the current CAMR — has been restored to
the Bill, after having been previously stripped out by a Parliamentary
committee.  In addition, Bill C-393 now includes a much-improved definition
of “pharmaceutical products” that can be exported under CAMR – a definition
that is not restricted to a list of specific medicines for specific
diseases, but in fact exactly reflects what was already agreed to years ago
by Canada and all other countries at the World Trade Organization.  We did
not originally anticipate a vote on these amendments until next week, so
this is a very welcome development.



·         Responding to public pressure and suggestions from civil society,
the Bloc Québécois has recognized that its original proposal for a “sunset
clause” in Bill C-393 was unacceptable — it would have automatically
reversed all of the reforms of the bill in a mere 4 years unless an onerous
series of procedural hurdles were overcome in order to keep a streamlined
CAMR alive.  The BQ has now agreed that it will extend the timeline to 10
years.  In addition, if the House of Commons agree, after a review, that the
streamlined CAMR should continue to exist in this form, then the changes
will become permanent.



·         The Liberal Party has confirmed that it supports Bill C-393 to
reform Canada’s Access to Medicines Regime.



·         A growing number of backbench Conservative Party MPs have also
confirmed their plans to vote for Bill C-393, although the leadership of the
Conservative (minority) government appears still to oppose it at this time.



A key component of the campaign over the coming days will be to make sure
that supportive MPs are present for the vote in the House of Commons on
Wednesday, March 9.



One way to keep up the pressure is to sign the Avaaz petition just launched
at http://www.avaaz.org/en/medicine_for_all.  Please sign to show your
support and share the link widely.  The campaign must continue until we get
the House of Commons – and the Senate – to pass Bill C-393 at long last.



To learn more about how you can get involved in this last push before the
final vote, please visit www.aidslaw.ca/camr or contact Lindsey
Amèrica-Simms at lsimms at aidslaw.ca.



###



________________________________________________

Richard Elliott



Executive Director | Directeur général

Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network | Réseau juridique canadien VIH/sida

+1 416 595-1666 (ext./poste 229) | relliott_aidslaw

www.aidslaw.ca | www.twitter.com/aidslaw

*Access to Medicines Campaign:* www.aidslaw.ca/camr |
www.aidslaw.ca/facebook
*Campagne pour accès aux médicaments :* www.aidslaw.ca/rcam |
www.aidslaw.ca/facebook**

[image: Description: Description: P]*           **please don't print this
e-mail unless you really need to.*

*           **s.v.p. ne pas imprimer ce courriel à moins d’en avoir vraiment
besoin.*
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