Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The widening gap in scientific and technological capabilities between some developing countries suffering persistent poverty and rich industrialised countries brings to question why some countries are catching up with richer countries, while others are not. Two key factors for success and innovation are knowledge building and the role of the state as a facilitator, according to UN officials.
World Health Organization members today took an important step closer to finding new ways to finance research and development into diseases afflicting developing countries.
After an at times bitter week-long debate on the issue of fake and poor quality drugs, member states have decided they will lead the World Health Organization forward towards a resolution on the issue.
The past year’s expert working group process at the World Health Organization on solutions for financing of research and development into diseases afflicting poor nations was flawed and led to an unsatisfactory result, representatives of non-governmental organisations said this week. But innovation and access can both be provided, and the issue of IP protection can be de-linked from the way innovation is done, speakers at a side event to this week’s World Health Assembly said. Meanwhile, NGOs and industry also offered their views on WHO counterfeiting efforts this week.
MUNICH - Whether strengthening patent protection and extending data exclusivity is the way to more innovation in the pharmaceutical and diagnostic sector was the subject of a recent conference here.
The latest draft is now available from the Swiss chair overseeing a small side group at the World Health Assembly trying to work out how to take forward a landmark initiative within the UN agency on innovation and intellectual property rights. It shows that countries negotiating the WHO’s next step on the sensitive topic are leaning toward establishment of a new group with more government involvement this time.
A new conference paper has been submitted to the World Health Assembly committee addressing the World Health Organization work on counterfeit and substandard medicines. It offers a way forward on this week's most controversial issue by involving governments directly in the activities through an intergovernmental working group.
The annual World Health Assembly is considering how to take forward a 2008 landmark decision at the World Health Organization that approved a new Global Strategy and Plan of Action on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property. Precious Matsoso, the current director of the WHO programme, spoke to Intellectual Property Watch in April about the ongoing implementation of the strategy, and what is needed to keep momentum going.
There is no evidence that the work of the World Health Organization has been misled or misled its members on the issue of fake or dangerous drugs, representatives of the UN organisation told journalists today. Nor is the WHO yet ready to drop use of the term 'counterfeit' to describe such medicines despite generic producing nations complaints about possible confusion over the term.
A battle broke out yesterday at the World Health Organization over whether it should continue its relationship with an in-house anti-counterfeiting law enforcement and customs group, and what that decision might mean for the role of the organisation in the fight against fake medicines.
Discussion at the annual World Health Assembly on counterfeit medicines may prove lively as stakeholders continue to raise concerns that the term “counterfeit” will confuse protecting patients from unsafe drugs with protecting trademarks from infringement. And an industry-led event in the lead-up to the WHA said counterfeit medicines pose great risks and will require a coordinated international response.
Two groups this week are urging the World Health Assembly to address access to diagnosis, treatment and new drugs, for a tropical disease that is the leading parasitic killer in the Americas. At a side event on the first day of the assembly, civil society actors also expressed concern about the shrinking input of civil society in the annual WHO members’ meeting.