Category WHO

Ebola, Reform High On WHO Executive Board Agenda This Week

The World Health Organization Executive Board yesterday adopted a resolution on Ebola, on the eve of today’s opening of its 10-day meeting addressing a broad range of health issues, including several of relevance to the intellectual property and innovation community. Today, Italy requested that member states be involved in the setting of WHO guidelines, raising governance issues, while WHO Director General Margaret Chan called for strong health systems and reform to the WHO structure, and asked for room to move on WHO relations with industry.

WHO Report: Access, Affordability Of Medicines Key To Reducing Non-Communicable Diseases

A new report from the World Health Organization examines the Global action plan for the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases 2013-2020 (known as the Global NCD Action Plan) and provides some “lessons learnt from implementation.” The report calls for urgent action by governments to stop the “epidemic” of cancer and mostly preventable diseases from sources like tobacco use, salt intake, physical inactivity, and high blood pressure. This includes ensuring treatment is available and affordable, it says.

WHO Executive Board To Address Reform, R&D Financing, Ebola, Budget

The upcoming World Health Organization Executive Board annual January meeting will be 10 days. Included in the list of issues to be addressed are the engagement of the organisation with lobbyists and donors, antimicrobial resistance, and the potential establishment of a pooled fund of voluntary contributions for research and development for diseases primarily affecting developing countries.

Most-Read IP-Watch Stories In 2014: A Tale Of Staff Issues, India, Hot-Button Topics

All year long, Intellectual Property Watch expends great energy and resources to bring hundreds of carefully written, detailed stories on policymaking - technical committee meetings, legislation, negotiations, legal cases, and latest reports and papers. But in what is perhaps typical of readers everywhere, many of the best-read IP-Watch stories of 2014 were those few that involved elections and personnel issues and India, followed by a range of hot button issues such as high-priced medicines, copyright and knowledge access, patent valuation, or internet surveillance.

UN Office Of Drugs And Crime Enters Debate Over Fake Medicines And IP

The Vienna-based United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has been working for several years to fight “fraudulent” medicines in the global supply chain. But an alleged new draft model legislation it is developing includes intellectual property rights, an issue which has led to intensive debates in other international fora. This week, a closed-door UNODC informal expert group drafting the model legislation is meeting in Vienna.

Expect Strong IP Push From Global Pharma Industry Next Year; WHO Prescribes Dose Of Reality

NEW YORK - Strong intellectual property rights will be a top priority for the pharmaceutical industry internationally in the coming year and arguments over IPRs versus medicines access are false, a top representative said at a high-level industry event this week. But views at the event differed on expectations of industry in light of the Ebola crisis, hepatitis C drug costs or other medicines access questions.

WTO, WHO, WIPO Examine IPRs And Middle-Income Countries

The current income-based grouping of countries needs to be changed or access to medicines in middle-income countries will worsen, several speakers said yesterday at a joint meeting between three international organisations on health, trade, and intellectual property. But middle-income countries should step up their engagement in organisations such as the World Health Organization, according to WHO and civil society.