[Ip-health] Reuters: Scientists ask WHO to boost 'neglected' disease R&D

Thu Jan 26 09:03:00 2006

Scientists ask WHO to boost 'neglected' disease R&D

 25 Jan 2006 14:32:00 GMT

 Source: Reuters

 GENEVA, Jan 25 (Reuters) - More than 200 medical scientists urged the
 World Health Organisation's (WHO) executive on Wednesday to back a call to
 boost research into drugs for "neglected" diseases that kill mainly the
 world's poor.

 A resolution calling for action to step up "needs-driven" research and
 switch some emphasis away from research for profit has been put by Brazil
 and Kenya to the WHO's executive board, which is meeting this week. It
 aims to push development of safe and affordable drugs for AIDS, malaria
 and tuberculosis as well as tropical diseases and illnesses like sleeping
 sickness, where current remedies are often expensive and can have
 dangerous side-effects.

 "As scientists, many of whom work in fields connected with biomedicine, we
 are writing to express our support for the resolution," they said in a
 letter to the WHO.

 "At a time of huge progress in basic research ... and more money (for) ...
 research and development (R&D), we are deeply concerned about the ability
 ... to translate this into a global improvement in public health," said
 the scientists, who included Sir John Sulston, the 2002 Nobel medicine
 laureate.

 According to Medecins sans Frontieres, the relief agency which has long
 campaigned for a change in priorities, 90 percent of the $105.9 billion
 spent annually on medical research goes to diseases affecting just 10
 percent of the population.

 Of 1,556 new products marketed globally between 1975 and 2004, only 20 ---
 just 1.3 percent -- were for tropical diseases and tuberculosis, it says.

 Backing the scientists' call, Ellen 't Hoen, director of MSF's policy
 advocacy and research division, told journalists the resolution could, if
 adopted, help shift research priorities, give a bigger role to the WHO in
 setting them, and address a lack of money for the so-called neglected
 diseases. The resolution, which the 33-country board will discuss on
 Wednesday or Thursday, urges the WHO to set up a group of interested
 states to work on proposals for a "global framework" to support
 needs-driven research and report back within 3 years.

 It also urges the WHO's 192 member states individually to increase
 research on poor country diseases and get more involved in the work.
"We are not talking about something that will totally change the system of
research and development ... but which will re-orientate part ... into
priorities," said Bernard Pecoul, head of the MSF-backed Drugs for
Neglected Diseases Initiative.

+++++++++++++++++++++
Sheila Shettle
Communications Officer
M=E9decins Sans Fronti=E8res
Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines
Rue de Lausanne 78
1211 Geneva
Switzerland
+ 41.22.849.8403
sheila.shettle@geneva.msf.org
www.accessmed-msf.org