Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The World Intellectual Property Organization this week has striven to show its commitment to contributing to the debate on intellectual property and health, and the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, through advancement of its Re:Search program for the next five years.
With global funding for research and development decreasing, and the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance, ways to incentivise research are seen as key to solving the problem. Speakers at a side event to the World Health Assembly this week presented models of public and private partnerships to address the issue.
The World Health Organization has launched a public consultation on the Draft Research and Development Blueprint Material Transfer Agreement tool text.
Transparency” and “accountability” are familiar buzzwords. Like salt and pepper, they pop up on nearly every list of ingredients for sound policy and good governance. But, as Ilona Kickbusch and Suerie Moon of the Graduate Institute Global Health Centre in Geneva point out, their details are rarely specified: transparency for what? Accountability to whom? On Tuesday afternoon, those not busy casting a vote for the next World Health Organization director general got the chance to dig into these questions at a panel co-sponsored by the Graduate Institute and FIND. In particular, discussion focused on transparency in terms of public access to two types of information: drug R&D costs and clinical trial data.
In his first meeting with the United Nations press corps the morning after his historic election as the next director general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus began to unfold his vision for the organisation and fended off questions about the United States budget by saying WHO has to diversify its funding base. He also signaled a variety of possible issues to come such as increased assessments on governments, and consideration of the recommendations of a recent UN report on access to medicines.
A new draft decision submitted this week at the World Health Assembly (WHA) by a group of countries would set out further actions to analyse the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness (PIP) Framework.
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.