Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Noncommunicable diseases, including heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, and chronic respiratory diseases, cause 80 percent of deaths worldwide. Cities play an important role in the prevention of noncommunicable diseases and injuries as around half of the world population lives in urban settings, according to Bloomberg Philanthropies.
A group of non-governmental organisations organised a side event to the World Health Assembly to discuss the growing issue of antimicrobial resistance, the way to incentivise research and development for new antibiotics, and the imperative of affordability and accessibility of new products. The speakers mentioned alternative models, such as delinking the cost of research from the price of the medicines, underlined the high prices of vaccines, and the importance of systems of infection prevention and control.
It might be said it is a “golden moment” for fighting noncommunicable diseases. There have never been as many side events on noncommunicable diseases during the World Health Assembly as this year, according to speakers at an event of the NCD Alliance this week.
In a novel election process for the first time involving the full organisation membership, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of Ethiopia this evening was elected as the next director general of the World Health Organization, becoming the first official from Africa to be chosen to head the United Nations health agency.
Speculation in the hallways of United Nations headquarters in Geneva was rampant in the days and hours leading up to this afternoon’s election of a new director general to lead the UN World Health Organization, but solid information about who will win was hard to come by. The outcome after a series votes is expected sometime tonight.
Update! According to sources, the first round of voting is over. Results: Tedros 95, Nabarro 52, Nishtar 38. Second round update! Tedros 121, Nabarro 62. Third round underway.
Yesterday’s United States Supreme Court decision in TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Food Brands Group followed some familiar trends in Supreme Court jurisprudence. It overturned long-established Federal Circuit law, restricted the power of patent owners, and handed a stinging defeat to so-called “patent trolls” (companies that make money primarily by licensing their patents and suing those who refuse to purchase licenses). The Court did all this by limiting where patent infringement suits can be filed – and thus significantly changing patent litigation in the US.
In her final opening speech to the annual World Health Assembly, Director General Margaret Chan today underlined progress made and left to make, and highlighted access to medicines as the most contentious issue of her decade of service. She stressed the importance of innovation, and investment in health, acknowledged the necessity of partners such as the private sector and civil society, and encouraged scientific evidence in decision making. And she focussed strongly on global security and health emergencies.
The 70th annual World Health Assembly (WHA), now underway in Geneva, is shaping up to be one of the most consequential in memory. With a record-setting nine-day, 76-item agenda, plus dozens of official and unofficial side events, delegates and WHO followers alike will be hard-pressed to keep up. But yesterday’s introductory briefing, hosted by the Global Health Centre at the Graduate Institute, provided an overview of the proceedings and a few pointers on where to look first. Four items, in particular, stand out.
The 70th annual World Health Assembly kicked off today with the focus of thousands on the grand plenary hall in United Nations headquarters in Geneva. But in the surrounding rooms and buildings in and outside of the UN, a wide array of side events is taking place. IP-Watch's Global Health Policy News took a look at a selection of these events and found this year a stronger focus has emerged on the subject of health security and the new UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These are occurring alongside the usual disease-specific events and those on various sectors of humanity, the focus on access to medical products, and a variety of other current topics.
Taiwan will not be allowed to participate in the World Health Assembly (WHA) this year as an observer, the WHA has decided on its opening day. Some hours earlier today, Taiwan’s minister of health gave a press conference to denounce the fact that the country has not been invited by the World Health Organization, and saying that Taiwan needs the WHO, and the WHO needs Taiwan.
Group of 20 health ministers today finished their first joint table top exercise to simulate the outbreak of a new deadly viral pandemic in “Anycountry” and passed a seven-page final resolution on pandemic preparedness and antimicrobial resistance. Non-governmental experts and health organizations welcomed the first ever meeting of health ministers in the G20 format, but see a risk of framing the debate from a global North security perspective. And despite a call of urgency with regard to antimicrobial resistance, the G20 could not agree to include the de-linking of the cost of investment in R&D from the price of medical products.
After years of mostly discontented discussions at the World Intellectual Property Organization committee on IP and development, last week proved positive, with a 10 year political knot solved, an international conference, and a new project approved, as well as a number of recommendations to implement the 2007 WIPO Development Agenda.