Policy Concentrates INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
▸ U.S. slams countries over weak patent protections The Trump Administration is sharply criticizing India, China, Indonesia, and several other countries it says are not properly enforcing and protecting the intellectual property rights of U.S. drugmakers and other businesses. In a congressionally required annual report released in late April, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) placed 11 countries on a “priority watch list” for their perceived intellectual property rights abuses, such as failing to prevent the export of counterfeit drugs and inadequately enforcing patents. The report says nearly 90% of counterfeit medicines seized at the U.S. border in fiscal 2016 came from China, Hong Kong, India, and Singapore. USTR says U.S. pharmaceutical companies remain concerned about the potential threat posed to their intellectual property through the Indian government’s possible use of compulsory licensing, which allows local firms to override patents and make cheaper generic copies of brand-name drugs. The report singles out China for its “coercive” technology transfer requirements, structural barriers to effective IPR enforcement, and “widespread infringing activity,” including trade secret theft.—GLENN HESS, special to C&EN
PHARMACEUTICALS
CREDIT: SHUTTERSTOCK
▸ Students seek drug leads for visceral leishmaniasis Chemistry students from five universities in India, the U.S., and the U.K. will jointly work on an open-source research project aimed at discovering drug leads for the disease visceral leishmaniasis. The results of the effort will be published in the public domain and be free of intellectual property claims, says the nonprofit group Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative, which is coordinating the collaboration. In the project, 25 undergraduate and master’s degree students in chemistry will work together to discover compounds that can kill Leishmania donovani and L. infantum, parasitic protozoans that cause visceral leishmaniasis. Most cases of the disease, also known as kala-azar,
EPA violated the endangered species law when it approved neonicotinoid pesticides linked to harming bees, a federal court ruled.
PESTICIDES
Neonicotinoid approvals violated endangered species law In a win for beekeepers and wildlife groups, a federal trial court ruled that EPA violated the Endangered Species Act when it approved the use of 59 products containing neonicotinoid pesticides between 2007 and 2012. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued the opinion in response to a 2013 lawsuit filed against EPA by food safety advocates, beekeepers, and other public interest groups. The groups claim that two neonicotinoid insecticides— clothianidin and thiamethoxam—“have been shown to adversely impact the survival, growth, and health of honeybees and other pollinators vital to U.S. agriculture.” Also, these pesticides have “harmful effects on other animals, including threatened and endangered species,” the groups contend. The court determined that EPA failed to consult with the Fish & Wildlife Service about the effects of the two pesticides on endangered and threatened species. The court sided with EPA, meanwhile, on several other points raised in the suit. For example, the court rejected claims that EPA’s 2012 denial of a petition to ban clothianidin poses an “imminent hazard” to bees.—BRITT ERICKSON
occur in Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan, according to the World Health Organization. If the disease is not treated, the fatality rate can be as high as 100% within two years, with the illness killing up to 30,000 people annually. Universities participating in the new research effort are Shobhaben Pratapbhai Patel School of Pharmacy & Technology Management at Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Northeastern University, Pace University, and Imperial College London.—K.V. VENKATASUBRAMANIAN,
special to C&EN
CLIMATE CHANGE
▸ EPA axes climate information from site The Trump EPA yanked long-standing information about climate change science from
the agency’s website at the end of April. “Our website needs to reflect the views of the leadership of the agency,” explains J. P. Freire, an EPA spokesperson. “We want to eliminate confusion by removing outdated language,” including information about the Obama Administration’s keystone climate change regulation, the Clean Power Plan, Freire says. As part of an executive order on domestic energy production, President Donald J. Trump in March ordered EPA to review the regulation, which limits carbon dioxide emissions from new and existing coal-fired power plants, with the goal of rescinding it. The agency’s website contains a link to an archive of the agency’s climate change pages from Jan. 19, the last day of the Obama Administration. Meanwhile, the city of Chicago last week posted the deleted EPA climate change information to its website. In another development, a federal court in late April suspended the Clean Power Plan for 60 days while judges hear arguments on whether to send the rule back to EPA for reconsideration.—CHERYL HOGUE MAY 15, 2017 | CEN.ACS.ORG | C&EN
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