[Ip-health] IFPMA: WHA Resolution Recognizes IP is Important Incentive for Development of New Health-Care Products

[Michelle Childs]

It is interesting to note that IFPMA is inaccurate in its  portrayal of
its role in the working group. It states below that it will ' representing
the pharmaceutical industry in the joint development of this strategy,
along with WHO Member States and other stakeholders.

The resolution makes it very clear that the responsibility for drawing up
the strategy is with Member States  , it is not a joint development with
private entities.

The resolution provides only for a very limited role for trade bodies and
others and stresses the need to avoid conflicts of interest:

< snip> 3) 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;

Michelle




> http://www.ifpma.org/News/NewsReleaseDetail.aspx?nID=3D5022
>
> World Health Assembly Resolution Recognizes IP is Important Incentive
> for Development of New Health-Care Products
>
> IFPMA
>
> Geneva, 5/31/2006 - The IFPMA notes positively the 59th World Health
> Assembly Resolution (A59/A/Conf. Paper No. 8, 27 May 2006) on
> =93Innovation, essential health research and intellectual property rights=
:
> towards a global strategy and plan of action=94 and the establishment of
> an intergovernmental working group =93to draw up a global strategy and
> plan of action=85 to address essential health research and development
> relevant to diseases that disproportionately affect developing
> countries.=94 The IFPMA looks forward to representing the pharmaceutical
> industry in the joint development of this strategy, along with WHO
> Member States and other stakeholders.
>
> Dr. Harvey Bale, Director General of the IFPMA, noted: =93As it did with
> the Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and Public
> Health, so the IFPMA will work actively in this new WHO project. It is
> important for patients worldwide that, in the coming two years, the WHO
> can identify positive measures that reflect the growing recognition of
> the benefits from the adoption of effective intellectual property
> systems across the globe.=94
>
> As the WHA Resolution itself notes, there is indeed global recognition
> =93that intellectual property rights are an important incentive for the
> development of new health-care products=94 and that =93considerable progr=
ess
> has been made in recent years by governments, industry, charitable
> foundations and non-governmental organizations in initiatives to develop
> new products to fight diseases affecting developing countries and to
> increase access to existing ones=94.
>
> Dr. Bale stated: =93We also recognize that in certain disease areas where
> developing countries are most highly impacted, further efforts are
> needed to create new partnerships to carry forward research and
> development.=94 In addition to its many medicines access partnerships, th=
e
> pharmaceutical industry itself is collaborating in a large number of
> important =93neglected disease=94 projects, as confirmed by two recent
> reports from the London School of Economics & Political Science; The New
> Landscape of Neglected Disease Drug Development 1 and The IFPMA Health
> Partnerships Survey: A Critical Appraisal 2. Industry-led partnerships
> to improve both access and R&D are also documented in detail in a new
> IFPMA publication: Partnerships to Build Healthier Societies in the
> Developing World 3.
>
> In summary, the research-based pharmaceutical industry will contribute
> actively to the upcoming two year WHO intergovernmental working group.
>
> About the IFPMA
>
> The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers &
> Associations is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation representing
> national industry associations and companies from both developed and
> developing countries. Member companies of the IFPMA are research-based
> pharmaceutical, biotech and vaccine companies.
>
> For More Information Please Contact
>
> Guy Willis
> Director of Communications, IFPMA
> Ch. Louis-Dunant, 15
> P.O. Box 195
> 1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland
> Email: g.willis@ifpma.org
> Tel: +41 (22) 338 32 00
> Fax: +41 (22) 338 32 99
> _______________________________________________
> Ip-health mailing list
> Ip-health@lists.essential.org
> http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/ip-health
>


--
Michelle Childs -Head of European Affairs
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