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    • World Health Assembly: Drafting Group Works To Combine Proposals On R&D

    Published on 24 May 2012 @ 1:59 am

    Print This Post Print This Post

    By , Intellectual Property Watch

    A drafting group has embarked on the task of combining four different proposals on the table at the annual World Health Assembly aimed at financing research and development for neglected diseases mostly afflicting poorer populations.

    The drafting group, established on 23 May in a larger committee of World Health Organization members, began work tonight and will continue on 24 May in a nine-hour marathon session starting at 1:00 in the afternoon.

    The 65th World Health Assembly is taking place from 21-26 May.

    The group decided tonight to create a single document with all of the elements of the four proposals, in order to begin narrowing and combining them, according to participants in the closed-door meeting. The new draft will be broken into three sections oriented around preamble, operational items, and other, possibly containing definitions, sources said.

    The member governments are working to decide how to respond to a report of the Consultative Expert Working Group on Research and Development: Financing and Coordination (CEWG), which was established at the last WHA with the mission to come up with ideas. The problem it addresses is that under the current medical products R&D system, there normally must be a sufficient market to pay higher prices to recover the cost of the R&D, and this leaves diseases of poor populations without an incentive for R&D investment.

    The group issued its report last month, available here.

    It made several recommendations, including the negotiation of a binding convention on R&D for neglected diseases. So far nations are divided over whether a binding convention is needed.

    Four proposals have emerged with variations on how to address the report recommendations. One is from Switzerland, one from Kenya, one from UNASUR (the Union of South American countries), and one from Australia, Canada, Japan, Morocco, and the United States.

    There was no agreement tonight on whether to pursue a convention, but some delegates appeared optimistic that some sort of agreement would be reached this week on a way to carry forward the work of the working group.

    The Kenyan proposal, A65/A/Conf.Paper No. 1, calls for the immediate convening of an intergovernmental negotiating body to negotiate the convention. It also calls for several steps to bring about the convention, as well as the implementation of the preceding WHO Global Strategy and Plan of Action on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property.

    The proposal of Switzerland, A/65/A/Conf. Paper No. 2, calls for consultations between the director general and member states on the feasibility of recommendations in the report, and would present a compilation of views expressed at the next World Health Assembly. It also would be discussed in regional groups.

    The UNASUR proposal, A65/A/Conf. Paper No. 4, would convene a meeting of national health authorities, and initiate an open-ended, government-driven study of implementation of CEWG mechanisms. The meeting would reach consensus on principles, objectives and governance instruments that “could form part” of a binding agreement, and would submit a progress report to the next WHA. Regional offices would be involved.

    The proposal by the United States and others, A65/A/Conf. Paper No. 5, calls for informal consultations between the director general and members on improving coordination and financing, including, but not limited to, the possible methods recommended by the CEWG. It also calls for the issue to be discussed by regional committees, and would compile the views in a document to be presented at the next WHA.

    One developing country source predicted after tonight’s meeting that during this week’s Assembly, there would not be in-depth discussion on substance of the proposals but rather mainly a focus on procedure.

    “Today was just collecting statements,” the official said. “There is no agreement on anything yet.”

    Sources said the possibility was raised to narrow the types of diseases that would be under consideration going forward, but this was not agreed.

    Another source said some delegations may be looking to revive some ideas that were dropped by the CEWG. The group began with over 100 proposals and narrowed them down (IPW, WHO, 22 May 2012).

    Related Articles:

    William New may be reached at wnew@ip-watch.ch.

    Categories: Development, Education/ R&D/ Innovation, English, Finance, Patents/Designs/Trade Secrets, Public Health, Technical Cooperation/ Technology Transfer, WHO

     

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    We welcome your participation in article and blog comment threads, and other discussion forums, where we encourage you to analyse and react to the content available on the Intellectual Property Watch website. By participating in discussions or reader forums, or by submitting opinion pieces or comments to articles, blogs, reviews or multimedia features, you are consenting to these rules.

    We welcome your participation in article and blog comment threads, and other discussion forums, where we encourage you to analyse and react to the content available on the Intellectual Property Watch website.

    By participating in discussions or reader forums, or by submitting opinion pieces or comments to articles, blogs, reviews or multimedia features, you are consenting to these rules.

    1. You agree that you are fully responsible for the content that you post. You will not knowingly post content that violates the copyright, trademark, patent or other intellectual property right of any third party or which you know is under a confidentiality obligation preventing its publication and that you will request removal of the same should you discover that you have violated this provision. Likewise, you may not post content that is libelous, defamatory, obscene, abusive, that violates a third party's right to privacy, that otherwise violates any applicable local, state, national or international law, that amounts to spamming or that is otherwise inappropriate. You may not post content that degrades others on the basis of gender, race, class, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual preference, disability or other classification. Epithets and other language intended to intimidate or to incite violence are also prohibited. Furthermore, you may not impersonate others.

    2. You understand and agree that Intellectual Property Watch is not responsible for any content posted by you or third parties. You further understand that IP Watch does not monitor the content posted. Nevertheless, IP Watch may monitor the any user-generated content as it chooses and reserves the right to remove, edit or otherwise alter content that it deems inappropriate for any reason whatever without consent nor notice. We further reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to remove a user's privilege to post content on our site. IP Watch is not in any manner endorsing the content of the discussion forums and cannot and will not vouch for its reliability or otherwise accept liability for it.

    3. By submitting any contribution to IP Watch, you warrant that your contribution is your own original work and that you have the right to make it available to IP Watch for all purposes and you agree to indemnify IP Watch, its directors, employees and agents against all damages, legal fees and others expenses that may be incurred by IP Watch as a result of your breach of warranty or of these terms.

    4. You further agree not to publish any personal information about yourself or anyone else (for example telephone number or home address). If you add a comment to a blog, be aware that your email address will be apparent.

    5. IP Watch will not be liable for any loss including but not limited to the following (whether such losses are foreseen, known or otherwise): loss of data, loss of revenue or anticipated profit, loss of business, loss of opportunity, loss of goodwill or injury to reputation, losses suffered by third parties, any indirect, consequential or exemplary damages.

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    7. You acknowledge and agree that you use and/or rely on any information obtained through the discussion forums at your own risk.

    8. For any content that you post, you hereby grant to IP Watch the royalty-free, irrevocable, perpetual, exclusive and fully sub-licensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such content in whole or in part, world-wide and to incorporate it in other works, in any form, media or technology now known or later developed.

    9. These terms and your posts and contributions shall be governed and interpreted in accordance with the laws of Switzerland (without giving effect to conflict of laws principles thereof) and any dispute exclusively settled by the Courts of the Canton of Geneva.

     

     
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