Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Members of the World Health Organization Executive Board this week moved forward on the long path to new ways to spur research and development for diseases that mainly afflict poor populations. A process has been set for considering – and potentially choosing among - eight projects before the annual World Health Assembly in May.
The sometimes tense issue of intellectual property rights flexibilities built into international trade rules on IP briefly threatened to trip up a proposal on access to medicines today at the World Health Organization. But members managed to steer the debate to consensus on a text that will now head to the full membership for approval in May.
The World Health Organization Executive Board got through a high number of items yesterday, including several with ramifications for intellectual property and innovation.
Discussions on access to essential medicines yesterday at the World Health Organization were in some ways overshadowed by the recent leak of a global pharmaceutical campaign aimed at derailing efforts by the South African government to revise its intellectual property policy. WHO Director General Margaret Chan strongly supported South Africa, as did several developing countries, while developed countries remained silent on the subject.
The World Health Organization Executive Board spent long hours this week discussing the progress of the reform of the organisation. Among items covered were the reform implementation plan, the engagement of WHO with non-state actors, and ways to improve decision-making by the organisation’s governing bodies.
Daniele Dionisio writes: Hopes that a comprehensive global health goal could be reached by 2035 are hardly credible with the load of unresolved issues still on the table. This article turns the spotlight on much-debated relevant questions that were left out or under-scrutinised in a recently published Lancet report.
Several health care organisations this week signed a “consensus framework" for ethical collaboration between patients’ organisations, healthcare professionals, and the pharmaceutical industry.
The South African minister leading the charge in drafting a revised intellectual property policy for the country has expressed his dismay at reports of a pharmaceutical company campaign aimed at derailing the process of implementing the new IP policy.
Availability and accessibility of vaccines in middle-income countries was raised today at the World Health Organization as member states are ploughing through a heavy agenda. Noncommunicable diseases were also discussed and delegates sitting on the Executive Board agreed on a formal meeting before the next World Health Assembly to complete terms of reference for a global coordination mechanism to prevent and control the growing epidemic.
The World Health Organization Executive Board opened this morning with a packed agenda, which prompted the chair to warn participants to restrict their statements. Director General Margaret Chan described as problematic the temptation to address all public health issues, and encouraged member states to focus on strategic and selective goals. Member countries also expressed concerns about the length of the agenda.
The World Health Organization has been soul-searching for several years since running into deep debt and seeing private organisations gather influence in global public health policy. Next week, the WHO Board will consider a proposal on how to allow the intergovernmental body work with such organisations and industry without giving up its own independence and oversight role.
DG Shah writes: Acquisition of brownfield, or existing, pharmaceutical companies may be seen in different perspectives as greenfield, or new, projects are permitted 100% equity via the automatic route. India has sought FDI mainly to bridge the shortfall in investment or to facilitate the flow of know-how and technology. We must first assess the need of the pharma sector and then evaluate whether mere change of ownership would meet its needs.