Outcomes from the Second Session of the IGWG

The World Health Organization’s Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property (IGWG) met for the continuation of its second session in Geneva at the end of April.  While they didn’t achieve consensus on all elements of their draft plan, there were many areas of agreement.

Some of the points of consensus include:

• Intellectual property rights are an important incentive for the development of new health-care products. This incentive alone does not meet the need for the development of new products to fight diseases where the potential paying market is small or uncertain;
• Encourage cooperation between private and public sectors to promote research and development;
• Support existing and new research and development groups and institutions, including regional centres of excellence in developing countries, to improve innovative capacity;
• Actions to be taken to improve healthcare delivery and access in developing countries include:
• Invest in developing health-delivery infrastructure
• Increase investment in human resource development in the health sector
• Develop effective country poverty reduction strategies
• Comply with good manufacturing practices for safety standards, efficacy and quality of health products

The full outcomes document from this latest IGWG meeting and the plan of action white paper are available on the WHO site.

Continued discussion of the contested elements will continue at the 61^st meeting of the World Health Assembly taking place in Geneva next week.