[Ip-health] FromGeneva: Discussion on WHO experts at meeting on R&D

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

http://fromgeneva.blogspot.com/2006/12/discussion-on-who-experts-at-
meeting.html

Discussion on WHO experts at meeting on R&D

4 December 2006
FromGeneva
Thiru Balasubramaniam

Today is the first day of the inaugural meeting of World Health
Organization (WHO) Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health,
Innovation and Intellectual Property mandated by the World Health
Assembly Resolution (WHA) 59.24 to establish an intergovernmental
working group

     open to all interested Member States to draw up a global strategy
and plan of action in order to provide a medium-term framework based on
the recommendations of the Commission. Such a strategy and plan of
action aims at, inter alia, securing an enhanced and sustainable basis
for needs-driven, essential health research and development relevant to
diseases that disproportinately affect developing countries, proposing
clear objectives and priorities for research and development, and
estimating funding needs in in this area.



Currently a chair has not been elected. Mr. Denis Aitken (Assistant
Director-General- Advisor to the Director-General) is presiding over
the meeting till the IGWG has elected a chair. It has been suggested
that a bureau be set up with a Chair and 5 Vice Chairs representing all
6 WHO regions, and that the vice chairs meet over lunch today to
nominate a chair and rapporteur.

There has been discussion over the role of experts invited in
accordance with WHA 59.24 (Paragraph 4(3)) which requests the
Director-General

     to invite experts and a limited number of concerned public and
private entities to attend the sessions of the intergovernmental
working group and to provide advice and expertise, as necessary, upon
request of the Chair, taking into account the need to avoid conflicts
of interest



The experts invited the the first meeting of the WHO IGWG include Dr.
Pecoul and Mrs. Dentico from the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Intiative
(DNDi), Dr. von Schoen Angerer and Ms. 't Hoen from Medicins sans
Frontieres, Ms. Feisee from the Biotechnology Industry Organization,
Mrs Callan and Ms. Sampogna from the Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD), Mr. Iverson from the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation, Mr. Wilder from Sidley Austin LLP, in addition to
experts from the World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Intellectual
Property Organization (WIPO) and the Global Forum for Health Research.

South Africa, on behalf of the African Group, asked clarification from
the WHO Legal Counsel on how the experts were chosen since a Chair has
not been elected yet and Member States did not have input as to their
selection. The WHO Legal Counsel, Mr. Gian Luca Burci responded by
saying that his reading of Paragraph 4(3) of WHA59.24 indicated that
the Assembly requested the WHO Director-General to "invite experts".

The representative of the United States of America aligned himself with
the query by South Africa and further noted that when the resolution
was negotiated in May 2006, it was not the intention of his delegation
that experts would be selected by the Secretariat prior to the election
of the Chair and thus disagreed with the interpretation of the
"experts" clause by the WHO Legal Counsel. He further questioned the
seating of the experts near the front of the conference room.

Assistant-Director General Howard Zucker (Health Technology and
Pharmaceuticals) responded by stating that the experts were selected
based on their expertise and represented a broad range of key
stakeholders. Norway weighed in to sugggest that the text of WHA 59.24
required that experts be appointed prior to the meeting, but the U.S.
rejected this interpretation.

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Thiru Balasubramaniam
Geneva Representative
CPTech
voice +41.22.791.6727
fax +41.22.723.2988
mobile +41 76 508 0997
thiru@cptech.org