Update from the World Health Assembly – May 20

Live Twitter updates from the 62nd World Health Assembly:  www.twitter.com/patientspatents
Discussions on issues of public health and innovation have been further delayed.  They were to be discussed yesterday, but have been rescheduled for later today.  With other issues such as climate change, social determinants of health and pandemic influenza preparedness also on the agenda, it seems likely [...]

Members of WHO Expert Working Group on R&D Financing announced

IP Watch reports that the World Health Organization has released a long-awaited list of high-level experts tasked with finding innovative funding mechanisms for needed medical research on neglected diseases. The list largely contains governmental and intergovernmental representatives.  The list of Expert Working Group members is available from the WHO website.
This group will examine current financing [...]

Director of PAHO blogs about annual meeting, public health and innovation

The Director of the Pan-American Health Organization (Mirta Roses) stated in her blog that this year’s PAHO assembly would focus particularly on matters related to innovation and research.  ”Proposals for action to strengthen vital and health statistics, as well as the link between public health, innovation, and intellectual property, are part of our integral efforts to [...]

WHO offers few details on progress of global health and IP strategy

IP Watch released the following report on the World Health Organization’s Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property and their lack of transparency:
Work is ongoing within the World Health Organization on a member-mandated global strategy on public health, innovation and intellectual property, a WHO official said Tuesday. But little information about that [...]

What was the final outcome of the IGWG anyway?

After all the talk, all the negotiations late into the night, all the lobbying and the mud slinging, what actually happened to the IGWG at the end of the 61st World Health Assembly – and what does it mean for patients around the world? 
According to the WHO web site, the “Global Strategy on public health, [...]

Report on the IGWG

The World Health Organization recently posted a news release stating that:
the <World> Health Assembly produced a public health breakthrough by providing a platform for removing barriers and using innovative methods to encourage research, development and access to medicines for the common diseases of the developing world.
The public health, innovation and intellectual property strategy endorsed by [...]

Patents are the wrong target

Much as the WHO’s IGWG draft strategy on public health, innovation and intellectual property remains unfinished with the close of the 61st World Health Assembly, so does the global discussion on this important topic.
Benetto Della Verova, a member  of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, writing in the International Herald Tribune (‘Patents are the wrong target’ ) examines [...]

Anti-IP Special Interests Continue to Pursue Strategies at IGWG that Benefit Grey Market Suppliers and Others that Profit from Their Agenda

At the World Health Organization meetings, a myriad of special interest groups are aggressively lobbying member states to loosen the definition of counterfeit medicines and to weaken intellectual property protection. Three key strategies are at the heart of the Anti-IP activists tactics o benefit generic and “grey –market” suppliers of drugs.
The first strategy is to [...]

Overview of the IGWG draft plan

The WHO’s Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property will present their incomplete draft strategy at this week’s 61st World Health Assembly.
Unfortunately, unless you’re a lawyer or government policy analyst, it is difficult to understand what the real reccomendations are.  For everyone else, here is an easy to understand overview of the [...]

Truth from the front lines

I had the pleasure of attending the Patients and Patents reception and workshop in Geneva on the eve of the 61st World Health Assembly where we received an update on the progress made by the IGWG on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property.
One of the speakers was an Anglican priest from Nigeria, Father Ojeh.  Quoting [...]