IGWG

May 3, 2008

Today Ethan Guillen, Executive Director of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (www.essentialmedicine.org), issued the following statement on the World Health Organization Intergovernmental Working Group in Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property:

"We were pleased to see the advancement in the negotiations of important issues like technology transfer that promotes innovation of and access to medicines for the developing world.

Today, NGOs at the WHO IGWG had an opportunity to give statements to the plenary session. Below are a number of statements made by civil society organizations, including the collaborative statement of the Churches delegation in which we participated.

Joint Statement of Churches Delegation

This statement was written by delegation members from Essential Action,
Third World Network, and Universities Allied for Essential Medicines.

1 May 2008

Statement of CMC - Churches' Action for Health at WHO IGWG II bis

My name is Sarah Rimmington, and I am speaking on behalf of the CMC
Churches' Action for Health delegation. We are pleased to address the
WHO Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG) on public health, innovation
and intellectual property.

Medical research and development breakthroughs have made the world a
better and healthier place, thus serving the mission of justice, peace
and integrity of creation. Vaccines, antibiotics and drugs for
conditions such as HIV/AIDS have kept countless millions alive and
reduced untold suffering.

Prizes and Parasites

One subject attracting a great deal of attention this week at the IGWG meeting in Geneva is that of prizes as an alternative incentive approach for neglected disease R&D, with multiple different examples of prize proposals on the table. In following the negotiations, it has been have noted that there have been questions about the relative difficulty of various research programs discussed in the prize proposals that have been put forward. Specifically, the proposal on Chagas disease has been questioned on the grounds that it is too difficult of a problem, citing the lack of success to date. While it is indeed true that we currently lack effective treatments and vaccines for Chagas - and, in fact, for the majority of parasitic diseases - there is no a reason to think that these diseases are insoluble. We are aggressively pursuing treatment for extremely complex diseases such as Alzheimer's, and, despite the enormous amounts of money being thrown at this disease, many doubt that a cure or even an effective treatment will ever be found. Parasitic diseases, while not simple to address, should in no way be thought of in the same category of complexity as diseases such as Alzheimer's - a disease to which we devote many times the amount of resources. In fact, given the relatively tiny amount of funding put towards parasitic diseases thus far, it is somewhat amazing that we have made as much progress as we have.

The post title and the text have been updated to reflect that the category BIO was in also included invited entities, another special category included with the experts.

Suerie Moon, a Harvard UAEMer, in Geneva with MSF this week, has compiled information on the IGWG delegations.

You'll note that 18% of "experts" are from BIO, including Janna Tom, the VP for Public Policy at AUTM.

From Suerie:

Data included:
1. Country delegation size
2.

April 28, 2008
Contact: Ethan Guillen, Universities Allied for Essential Medicines
ethan.guillen@essentialmedicine.org

Eminent Academics: IGWG Delegates Should Explore New Mechanisms to Correct Current Deficiencies in Medicine System

Today eminent academics including Nobel laureates Joseph Stiglitz and Sir John Sulston and Dr. Jim Kim of Partners in Health and Harvard University called on World Health Organization delegates to the Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property to consider innovative mechanisms to correct current deficiencies in the access and innovation system.

Speaking of proposals currently under discussion at the IGWG in a joint statement titled, "Making Innovation and Tech Transfer Work for Global Health: The University's Role and Responsibility to Society," the signatories wrote:

"These proposals include a treaty on bio-medical R&D and new incentive mechanisms for R&D that would use prizes as incentives for research (including both voluntary open licensing or non-voluntary mechanisms). These ideas, while varied and plausibly contestable in their details, all fall well within the types of solutions that are the result of significant research on the economics of innovation and access."

The statement also calls on delegates to the IGWG negotiation to consider new solutions to current deficiencies in the drug development and access system stating, "[W]e encourage the Intergovernmental Working Group to support the exploration of new and innovative mechanisms that seek to correct the deficiencies of the current system."

Universities Allied for Essential Medicines joins in this call and in particular would urge consideration of the Barbados and Bolivian proposals on prize funds and the R&D treaty.

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The full statement and list of signatories is below.

This morning, the World Health Organization Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property (IGWG) resumed its negotiations in Geneva. UAEM is represented by Ethan Guillen, Executive Director, and Sara Crager, a UAEM member and MD/PhD from Yale University. Throughout the week we will be posting regarding the goings on.

The IGWG is working on a Global Strategy and Plan of Action to tackle issues of R&D for neglected diseases and access to medicines.