New Resolution Gives Governments Control Of WHO Work On False Medicines
Published on 21 May 2010 @ 4:49 pm
By Kaitlin Mara, Intellectual Property Watch
After an at times bitter week-long debate on the issue of fake and poor quality drugs, member states have decided they will lead the World Health Organization forward towards a solution on the issue.
The “final result is the result we are looking for: that governments take control of the policies in WHO,” said the delegate of Brazil after the decision of the committee.
“We all recognise that there are concerns with WHO’s role on the issue and we all realise we have to talk about this,” said Spain on behalf of the European Union, adding it was “ready to enter these discussions with an open mind and without prejudice.”
The text gave a set of developing countries concerned about the WHO’s handling of the counterfeit issue what they had most wanted: a direct say in how the health organisation formulates its policies on “substandard/spurious/falsely-labelled/falsified/counterfeit medical products.”
This terminology was a compromise between those wanting to abolish use of the word counterfeit and focus on matters of quality, safety and efficacy, and those arguing counterfeit drugs are a particular threat in need of addressing as such.
The compromise text is available here [doc, typed by Intellectual Property Watch].
It came out of informal discussions on two earlier resolutions: one from Ecuador, on behalf of the Union of South American Nations, and India, on behalf of the Member States of the South-East Asia Region, available here [pdf] and one from the European Union and Switzerland, available here [doc, typed by Intellectual Property Watch].
Some countries oppose ‘counterfeit’ on concerns that as a term of art related to trademark law it would distract public health discussions from health to intellectual property enforcement. For related Intellectual Property Watch reporting, see (IPW, WHO, 20 May 2010, 20 May 2010, 18 May 2010, and 12 May 2010).
In parallel with the World Health Assembly, international policing agency Interpol is running a six day Intellectual Property Crime Training and Operational Workshop series in Dakar, Senegal intended to provide attendees with the skills to target “transnational organized criminals who systematically manufacture and distribute counterfeit and pirated goods throughout the region,” according to an Interpol press release.
The workshops are organised with the United States Department of Justice Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and IP crime-affected industries, says the release. They are being held from 20-25 May.
Similar workshops held in Kenya “served as a platform for the launch of a major offensive against intellectual property crime in Eastern and Southern Africa in 2009,” the Interpol release says.
Kenya earlier this week said that laws on counterfeit encouraged by the IMPACT group had proved problematic for public health, and had been drafted with the country’s trade ministry without consultation with its health ministry.
Cheikh Kane, an IP-Watch researcher, contributed reporting to this article.
Kaitlin Mara may be reached at kmara@ip-watch.ch.
Categories: News, English, Patent Policy, Public Health, Trademarks/Geographical Indications/Domains, WHO
22 May 2010 at 7:05 pm
Our statement on the resolution is available here:
http://www.keionline.org/node/847
22 May 2010 at 7:55 pm
The issue must be viewed in the light of development in ACTA. The world should be sensitive to the health needs of the larger proportion of world population and ensure that it get medicines at reasonable price. It may be worthwhile for WHO to conduct a study on the profit margins of drug companies and then try to include the profits for setting a platform which draws a barrier in making drugs available to the world at reasonable price. Positions adopted in ACTA should not be the criteria for finding a way out to meet the global needs. Drugs being sold at below the platform margin should get special treatment for its movement across the world.
23 May 2010 at 4:47 pm
At the behest of the rich countries WHO has been working against access to medicines in the name of getting better medicines to the poor. When only 20% of WHOs budget is under member states control, is it surprising that the rich and the powerful can use WHO as a missile against those deprived of medicines? At the same time Chirac heads to Africa and gets the natives to sign on to a process that protects Big Pharma. Meanwhile back at the ranch, the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness is used to lambast donor dependent countries, while rich country aid is used up filling forms and dealing with donors instead of helping the poor, to avoid corruption. This puts WHO in a difficult situation. Pity democracy in the rich countries does not work enough to see through these deceptions. Chan has put the issue of extra-budgetary funding centrally to the Global Health community but few want to touch it. The Canadians started but then were put in their place, I mean it must be nice to hire a UN agency to approve swine flu treatments and make sales, get influenza samples for free from developing countries make vaccines that you can sell to them at prohibitive prices, approve medical devices that no longer meet rich country standards and dump them in Africa, promote irrational use of medicines by starving the program because the USA wants to health to be a business not about dignity, or the EU for sitting on their butts as WHO kills their own proposal on food marketting and them watching it happen… all in all this propaganda works globally but most importantly on mainstream EU and US who can feel charitable and blame all and sundry… pity these using the levers of power defeated single payer in the US with such ease and practised power that USers still are not sure what happened… IS IT NOT TIME TO GET WHO A 100% budget under member state control instead of this inefficient funding that allows corporates to run circles around everyone… Chan nice one, on the budget, member states, especially poor ones, you are not even in the game…FOLLOW the money I say…
27 February 2011 at 7:00 pm
[...] The definition of those substandard medicines is itself the subject of discord and a compromise was found at the last WHA, between parties wanting to avoid using the word counterfeit and parties arguing counterfeit drugs are a particular threat to be addressed as such. The issue is currently being designated as substandard/spurious/falsely-labelled/falsified/counterfeit medical products (IPW, WHO, 21 May 2010). [...]
1 March 2011 at 11:53 pm
[...] Compromise language was found at the last World Health Assembly to satisfy parties who on the one hand want to avoid the word ‘counterfeit’ as it relates to a trademark infringement rather than the quality of the contents, and parties on the other who argue that counterfeit drugs are a particular threat to be addressed as counterfeit products. The current wording is substandard/spurious/falsely-labelled/falsified/counterfeit medical products (IPW, WHO, 21 May 2010). [...]