Worning Named Acting Head Of WHO IP Division

Anne Marie Worning, executive director of the director general’s office at the World Health Organization, will be adding direction of the WHO Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property (PHI) division to her list of duties, sources revealed today.

Worning, a native of Denmark, is a medical doctor who has worked in various capacities for the WHO secretariat, including in two regional offices, and before that in the pharmaceutical industry where she was the European coordinator of clinical trials.

She has served in the office of the director general since April 2009, according to her biography, and was previously the director of Planning, Resource Coordination and Performance Monitoring. She came to Geneva with prior experience in the WHO regional office for the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMRO) and the regional office for Europe.

The previous director of PHI, Precious Matsoso, departed shortly after the WHO’s annual World Health Assembly in May to take up a position of Director General of Health in her native South Africa. There are several other recent additions to PHI, including another EMRO alumni, Zafar Mirza, who is currently taking over the duties of German Velasquez, who recently joined the South Centre (IPW, WHO, 23 April 2010).