Original news and analysis on international IP policy
LYON, France - On the side of the annual Biovision conference on life sciences, a European vaccine manufacturers group presented its call for action for vaccines in Europe.
LYON, France - The opening plenary session of an annual industry forum on life sciences, focusing this year on immunotherapy and ageing, highlighted disruptive innovation as a way to address growing public health challenges. The concept, however, seems open to interpretation.
The Fight the Fakes campaign announced today the support of the Generic Pharmaceutical Association and 10 other new partners for its campaign to raise awareness worldwide about the dangers of fake medicines.
The June edition of the World Health Organization monthly Bulletin is dedicated to public health and the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa). That was a key issue of the recent World Health Assembly, as the emerging economies gain strength and coordinate their efforts to improve health access for their citizens, particularly as they graduate from global aid projects.
The World Health Organization faces a significant shift in its human resources status when polio eradication efforts come to an end in 2018, and so far, transition planning has been “sporadic and limited,” according to an independent study.
In the post-2015 Development Agenda, United Nations members must explicitly support research and development, related policies and capacity building with special attention to the low and middle income countries, in order to advance global health targets, experts said at a recent event in Geneva.
Reflecting its growing place on the international policy agenda, nutrition was a major focus of last week’s World Health Assembly.
Gavin Cloherty is associate director of scientific affairs at the US molecular diagnosis developer Abbott Molecular. Abbott has a long-standing history of developing tests for detecting and monitoring hepatitis, among other areas. With Intellectual Property Watch, Cloherty discussed the burden of hepatitis C, the process of diagnosis and the importance of diagnosis for curbing and treating the disease.
World Health Organization members last week approved a plan putting the UN health agency on track to renovating its headquarters in Geneva, reducing the number of buildings from 10 to three by eliminating the various longstanding temporary structures (including the restaurant) and constructing a new building adjacent to the existing main building. The main building also would be renovated.
At the World Health Organization 135th Executive Board meeting this week, member states discussed improvements to cut down on lengthy World Health Assemblies, and adopted two reports for further discussion on surgical care and anaesthesia, and the health impact of air pollution.
The prevention and control of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) stands high on the agenda of World Health Organization member countries, many of them said last week. Governments called for a multi-stakeholder approach to tackle the problem, governed by firm rules, and some asked for ways to regulate products that increase risk factors.
Faced with growing global concern over microbial resistance to antibiotic treatments, the World Health Assembly last week adopted a resolution to establish a global action plan on antimicrobial resistance.