WHO Working Documents On R&D Financing Now Online

World Health Organization working documents are now available online here. The documents for the first time reveal details of the working process of an expert working group (EWG) tasked with finding innovative solutions to finance research and development on drugs for neglected diseases.

Governments concerned about the transparency of the EWG told the WHO in May to release the working documents of the group by the end of June 2010.

The documents include: the proposals considered by the expert working group in its deliberations, the criteria and methodology used to assess the proposals, the “list of stakeholders” interviewed, and the sources of statistics by chapter of the group’s final report.

In addition to two “public hearings” in which the expert group called for feedback, nine outside experts were consulted, according to the stakeholder document, which describes the experts’ areas of knowledge and profession though does not provide names. In addition, interviews were held with “relevant stakeholders” who had to “fund or use” any of the financial mechanisms being discussed. These included: government, philanthropic, and venture capital funders; product development partnerships; and pharmaceutical companies.