Original news and analysis on international IP policy
World Health Organization members decided more consideration is needed to address the genetic information of flu viruses in the organisation’s pandemic framework, and the suggestion to have the framework considered as a special instrument under the Nagoya Protocol on access and benefit sharing of genetic resources.
The World Health Organization and The Netherlands government will co-host a meeting in the spring that brings experts together to look at high drug prices and the purchasing of medicines.
The US Army has extended the comment period on the proposed licence to pharmaceutical company Sanofi on technology necessary to create a vaccine for the Zika virus. This is the second extension, and will permit public comments through 10 March 2017.
The rising threat of “super bugs,” bacteria resistant to existing antibiotics, was in discussion at the World Health Organization this week. Concerns were voiced about the slow pace of national action plan implementation to improve the careful use of antibiotics. Meanwhile some developing countries and civil society called for priority to be given to accessibility and affordability to new antibiotics.
The Ebola outbreak spurred actions from the World Health Organization in terms of how to deal with emergencies and also getting medicines and vaccines to patients in emergency situations. The secretariat presented an implementation plan for the International Health Regulations, and a report on its recent blueprint on research and development for potentially epidemic diseases at its Executive Board meeting this week. The United States sought to limit the scope of WHO's work on R&D in this context.
The three remaining candidates to be director general of the World Health Organization today met at length with UN journalists in the WHO and highlighted their plans for reform including finding new sources of funding for the continually cash-strapped UN agency that now could face threats from the US president to cut US funding.
President Donald Trump’s promise to cut US funding to United Nations agencies has sent shock waves around the UN, but in a budget discussion at the World Health Organization Executive Board meeting today, the US delegation did not reject outright a call by WHO to increase government contributions to the organisation. Meanwhile, the WHO budget shows a deficit and many WHO members asked the WHO how it plans to remedy the situation and find solutions to reach financial sustainability.
The number of candidates to be the next director general of the World Health Organization was reduced from five to three tonight, with Ethiopia, Pakistan and the United Kingdom still in the running. But in a race as unpredictable as this one, delegates and observers in the hallway were both surprised and not surprised by the outcome as Europe fell to the bottom of the list.
The Medicines Patent Pool announced today that it has signed a license agreement with Johns Hopkins University for a candidate tuberculosis treatment. Although seen as a major step forward by public health groups, they said the agreement does not include guarantees that the treatment that could be brought to the market would be affordable for all.
World Health Organization members took the first step toward choosing the next director general of the UN health agency today as they narrowed the candidates to five. There will be interviews held with the remaining candidates tomorrow, after which the list will be reduced to three until the May World Health Assembly.
More than a decade after World Trade Organization member states approved the first-ever legal amendment to a WTO agreement, the change to the international intellectual property agreement has entered into effect. Five more members ratified the amendment in recent days, bringing supporters over the minimum needed to put into effect the amendment aimed at boosting exports of medical products made under compulsory licence.
At the opening of the World Health Organization Executive Board meeting today, a call by India for an agenda item on the report of the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines was denied. Meanwhile, WHO’s director general underlined the success of the organisation over the last year, including new financing arrangements with industry groups to finance the WHO Prequalification Programme. But all eyes are riveted to the election process for the new WHO director general, as three out of the six candidates are expected to be short-listed this week.