{"id":64724,"date":"2016-04-16T14:57:33","date_gmt":"2016-04-16T18:57:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/?p=64724"},"modified":"2016-04-16T14:57:59","modified_gmt":"2016-04-16T18:57:59","slug":"uh-oh-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/2016\/04\/16\/uh-oh-8\/","title":{"rendered":"uh oh&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div align=\"justify\" class=\"small\">I&#8217;m not sure what all this means, but I&#8217;m pretty sure it&#8217;s not good news, a decided blow to Data Transparency. I&#8217;ve e-mailed everyone I know who might be able to clarify&#8230;<\/div>\n<blockquote>\n<div align=\"center\" class=\"big\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.epha.org\/a\/6504\">European Parliament&rsquo;s vote turns health into a trade secret<\/a><\/div>\n<div align=\"center\" class=\"middle\"><strong><font color=\"#200020\">Trade Secrets Directive opens the way for shady TTIP negotiations<\/font><\/strong><\/div>\n<div align=\"center\" class=\"big\"><strong><font color=\"#200020\">epha<\/font><\/strong><\/div>\n<div align=\"center\" class=\"small\">14 April 2016 <\/div>\n<p align=\"justify\">Brussels, 14 April 2016. The European Parliament approved today a new  Directive on Trade Secrets, a position that would signal that trade  secrets outweigh the public interest. The impact will be negative for  health, by declaring information on safety of medicines commercially  confidential and to be kept secret from patients, regulators and the  public. The Trade Secrets Law would gag journalists and whistle-blowers,  undermining freedom of expression and preventing vital information  reaching the media and public. With regard to public health, the new  rules would erect a barrier to public access to data on the safety and  efficacy of medicines.<\/p>\n<div align=\"justify\">As a result, Europe could soon be stripped of its hard-won <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/eur-lex.europa.eu\/legal-content\/EN\/TXT\/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2014.158.01.0001.01.ENG\">global leader position on clinical trials transparency<\/a>.  The proposals for the Trade Secrets Directive are clearly intended to  increase commercial confidentiality in the interest of drug makers who  seek to keep clinical trials results secret, and would weaken patient  safety protection and halt further research and independent analyses.  The worrying lack of legal guarantees preventing companies from abusing  the concept of trade secrets opens the way for <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/ssrn.com\/abstract=1932436\">unethical repetition of clinical trials on people<\/a>, and the injection of public resources spent on therapies that are no better than existing treatments, do not work, or <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/haieurope.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/HAI_Protecting-citizenshealth-transparency-of-clinical-trial-data-on-medicines-in-the-EU.pdf\">do more harm than good<\/a>.<\/div>\n<ul>\n<div align=\"justify\"><em>&ldquo;This vote weakens recent efforts by European Institutions to increase sharing and <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/english.prescrire.org\/en\/79\/207\/46302\/3839\/3303\/SubReportDetails.aspx\">transparency of essential health data<\/a>. Clinical trials data transparency is <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.epha.org\/5314\">key for patient safety<\/a>, for access to affordable medicines, for public health research and innovation.<\/em>&rdquo; stated Nina Renshaw, Secretary General of the European Public Health Alliance. &ldquo;<em>Today&rsquo;s  vote is clearly designed to undermine the Clinical Trials Regulation,  on which the ink is barely dry, which was huge progress for patient  safety and access to medicines, but has always been opposed by the  pharmaceutical industry which prefers to conduct trials in secrecy. It  also seems to be aiming at smoothing the way for the pharmaceutical  industry in the EU-US TTIP negotiations, and would lower transparency  requirements in the EU to be closer in line with much weaker rules in  the US.<\/em>&rdquo;<\/div>\n<\/ul>\n<div align=\"justify\">Today&rsquo;s vote creates dangerous uncertainty around the issue of trade  secrets, particularly for medicines. It opens the way for pharmaceutical  companies to use and abuse this Trade Secrets Directive, leaving only  rulings from the European Court of Justice to determine the outcome and  judgement of future litigations on a case-by-case basis. The Council of the EU will vote on this Directive on 26 May -a vote that will likely be in line with the Parliament&rsquo;s stance&#8230;<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<div align=\"center\" class=\"big\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ip-watch.org\/2016\/04\/14\/trade-secrets-directive-clears-european-parliament-despite-concerns\/\">Trade Secrets Directive Clears European Parliament Despite Concerns<\/a><\/div>\n<div align=\"center\" class=\"big\">Intellectual Property Watch <\/div>\n<div align=\"center\" class=\"middle\">by Dugie Standeford<\/div>\n<div align=\"center\" class=\"middle\">14\/04\/2016<\/div>\n<p>    <\/p>\n<div align=\"justify\">Rejecting  calls for a vote to be delayed until the European Commission proposes  tougher whistle-blower protections, the European Parliament on 14 April  approved by 503-131 new rules giving companies redress for theft or  misuse of trade secrets. Debate on the trade secrets directive showed  sharp divisions among lawmakers, heightened by the recent &ldquo;Panama  Papers&rdquo; and other leaks, over whether the legislation will help  businesses safeguard their innovative ideas or lead to increased  corporate secrecy&#8230;<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m not sure what all this means, but I&#8217;m pretty sure it&#8217;s not good news, a decided blow to Data Transparency. I&#8217;ve e-mailed everyone I know who might be able to clarify&#8230; European Parliament&rsquo;s vote turns health into a trade secret Trade Secrets Directive opens the way for shady TTIP negotiations epha 14 April 2016 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64724"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64728,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64724\/revisions\/64728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}