[Ip-health] IP-Watch: WHO Intergovernmental Working Group on IP Ready "In Days"

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

     WHO Intergovernmental Working Group On IP Ready =93In Days=94


posted by Tove Iren S. Gerhardsen @ 5:36 pm


<http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=3D341&res=3D1024_ff&print=3D0#c=
omments>

An intergovernmental working group on intellectual property rights
mandated by the May World Health Assembly is expected to be set up =93in
the next few days,=94 according to World Health Organization sources.

The WHA resolution adopted in May called for the committee to be created
=93immediately,=94 and supporters are getting eager to see the issue moving=
.
Meanwhile, wrangling is underway over the committee=92s representation and
mandate, sources said.

Questions remain as to whom from the WHO, other intergovernmental
organisations, governments, the private sector and non-profits would
serve on the committee.

A WHO source told /Intellectual Property Watch /on 21 June that the WHO
is deciding on its team of people who will be associated with the group,
whose focus will be intellectual property rights, innovation and public
health.

The WHO had a meeting on the issue on 23 June and another meeting is
scheduled for Monday 26 June, the source said. But although a decision
may be reached then, it may take at least a week for it to be published,
the source said.

At this stage it is only the WHO that is working on its mandate
regarding the group, but it will be =93open to all interested member
states,=94 according to the resolution adopted on 27 May 2006 (/IPW/,
Public Health, 27 May 2006).

The resolution is entitled, =93Public health, innovation, essential health
research and intellectual property rights: towards a global strategy and
plan of action=94 (WHA59.24, Agenda item 11.11). It calls for the drafting
of a global plan of action for improving access to medicines in poor
countries.

Member Governments to Lead

The new chair of the WHO Executive Board, Fernando Antezana Aran=EDbar of
Bolivia, told /Intellectual Property Watch /that the government
officials would =93appoint representatives=94 who would represent the views
of the governments.

This could mean organising two or three committees or regional units, he
said, emphasising that the scheme should be =93clear and flexible=94 and
represent the views of every WHO member state.

The resolution also requests the director general to invite
intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations as observers to the
sessions. It further requests him to, =93invite 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.=94

Aran=EDbar said that the appointment of these representatives was not the
task of the WHO secretariat at the moment but rather would be done by
the working group when it first met.

A date for the first meeting still remains to be set, but Aran=EDbar said
the idea was to =93have something this year before the Executive Board
meeting in January.=94

The working group=92s mandate is to =93draw up a global strategy and plan o=
f
action in order to provide a medium-term framework based on the
recommendations of the commission [the WHO Commission on Intellectual
Property Rights, Innovation and Public Health (CIPIH)].=94

The CIPIH published its report in April 2006 (/IPW/, Public Health, 3
April 2006). The resolution setting up the working group merged a draft
resolution based on the CIPIH report as well as one draft resolution
based on a Brazil and Kenya suggestion for a global framework on
essential health research and development (EB117 R13).

Preparing a Framework

Aran=EDbar said that the WHO secretariat is preparing the framework for
the working group at the moment. This involves providing the documents,
background and deciding on the =93scope of discussion=94 that will apply to
the group in the future.

The WHO secretariat is doing this based on the expectations and
recommendations of the General Assembly and the Executive Board, he
said, emphasising that the role of the secretariat is to =93support and
assist the member states.=94

The WHO also is addressing the fact that previously, the discussion of
intellectual property and public health was held in a group of experts
(the CIPIH) which has completed its work, and now will be discussed by
governments, he said.

The WHO director general also is requested =93to allocate the necessary
resources to=94 the group, according to the resolution. As the resolution
was adopted by the WHA, Aran=EDbar said there should be sufficient funding.

Names of which official within the WHO might be in charge of the group
have been circulating, but the WHO source told /Intellectual Property
Watch /that a team of people who would be working on this issue is being
appointed, and there was thus less focus on the person who would head it.

WHO names to head the group that have been floated are Robert Ridley,
director of the UNICEF/UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special Programme for
Research and Training in Tropical Diseases, and Howard Zucker, WHO
assistant director general for health technology and pharmaceuticals
(/IPW/, Public Health, 31 May 2006).

Kenya to Inquire about Status of Committee

A Kenyan official told /Intellectual Property Watch /on 22 June that he
had not heard any news from the WHO regarding the group. Referring to
the reference to =93immediately=94 in the resolution, the official said:
=93They are a bit late, and there is no news on what they are doing.=94

The official pointed out that the working group was established by the
resolution, and the acting director general is only supposed to set a
date for the first meeting.

As WHO Acting Director General Anders Nordstr=F6m is new, Kenya was
planning on giving the WHO more time, but plans to contact the
organisation next week to inquire about progress on the group, an
official said.

The Swiss chair of the technical group that drafted the resolution at
the WHA, Gaudenz Silberschmidt of the Swiss Federal Office of Public
Health, told /Intellectual Property Watch /that the working group is now
at the stage of an =93internal preparation=94 within the WHO.

He said one =93should not underestimate what it takes=94 and one should
=93give them a few weeks=94 to finalise this task. Silberschmidt said that
the group would be open to all according to WHA procedures for such groups.