[Ip-health] IP-Watch: Health Assembly To Begin Talks On IP Resolutions Thursday Under Time Constraints

[Mike Palmedo]

http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=3D315&res=3D1024_ff&print=3D0

Health Assembly To Begin Talks On IP Resolutions Thursday Under Time
Constraints

Tove Iren S. Gerhardsen and William New
IP-Watch
25/5/2006

A technical committee of the World Health Assembly on 24 May decided to
wait until the next day to set up a short-term working group on two
draft intellectual property resolutions, which put in question whether
the assembly will run out of time on these issues before it ends on Friday.

The meeting is running behind schedule as the IP issues were to be
discussed on 24 May if time permitted. But the meeting will take up
substantive discussion of the IP resolutions listed under assembly
agenda item 11.11 (on intellectual property) at the start of the meeting
on 25 May, World Health Organization sources said. A decision on a
short-term working group on the resolutions is expected to follow,
possibly at midday, they said.

The 22 to 27 May assembly may be extended until Saturday, 28 May, some
sources suggested after the decision, also referring to the sudden and
unexpected death of the World Health Organization Director General Lee
Jong-wook on 22 May.

The two resolutions are: EB117 R13 on a global framework for essential
R&D for medicines, proposed by Brazil and Kenya; and a resolution based
on the report from the WHO Commission on Intellectual Property Rights,
Innovation and Public Health (CIPIH), which is included in a report
summarising the CIPIH report. The second resolution calls for a working
group to develop a global plan of action. Some have suggested that the
two resolutions be merged, several sources said (IPW, Public Health, 22
May 2006).

Some have also suggested that a separate resolution on trade and health
may be controversial, sources said. That resolution appears to be
scheduled to come up on 25 May as well.

The decision not to set up a working group on the IP resolutions was
reached after a discussion involving a number of suggestions, and with
the chair referring to the WHO secretariat a number of times for
clarification.

One non-governmental organisation participant said it appeared that most
delegates did not follow the debate and were caught by surprise when the
decision was reached.

Among the suggestions was one from Bolivia to set up a committee working
group to take the first look at the resolutions, referring to the number
of brackets particularly in the Brazil-Kenya resolution.

Some countries, among them Kenya, questioned whether this would save
time as the committee working group would not have a mandate to make
changes and the issue would still have to be discussed in plenary on 25 May=
.

The WHO secretariat clarified that the working group would not have the
power to produce any documents but could debate the issue.

India then said that the working group should have the mandate to
=93reconcile the two resolutions=94 in order to be constructive.

South American Health Ministers Decry Patents=92 Impact On Essential Drugs
Access

The health ministers of 10 South American countries on 23 May issued a
signed declaration highlighting the importance of accessing medicines
and critical substances as a basic human right and a duty of
governments, and blamed the global patent regime at least in part for
public health problems.

They said sizeable populations in the world lack access to these, and
tied the growing burdens of diseases disproportionately affecting
developing countries to the increased use of patents, especially with
the enforcement of the 1994 World Trade Organization Agreement on
Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Rights (TRIPS).

The declaration was signed by the health ministers of Argentina,
Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and
Venezuela on 23 May in Geneva.

The ministers said significant increases in prices and direct costs to
consumers, as well as in market prices, as a result of the patent system
for necessary health products, according to the original
Spanish-language version. They noted that the health problems in their
countries particularly affect women and children.

They also declared that their countries have adopted in legislation and
other ways all of the flexibilities and safeguards allowed in the TRIPS
agreement. They said a dialogue must be continued at the regional level
to take actions to =93guarantee the supremacy of the public good over
commercial interests.=94

The declaration states the ministers=92 commitment to promote
flexibilities as agreed at the WTO, promote public awareness about the
importance of implementing safeguards and flexibilities, strengthen
cooperative initiatives especially on technology transfer, strategic
alliances on science, technology and innovation, and forming technical
assistance networks focused on intellectual property issues related to
health.

The group also called for the preservation of TRIPS flexibilities in
bilateral and regional agreements, such as allowing exceptions to
patenting rules for public health reasons, and avoiding the extension of
patent protection to therapeutic methods, plants and animals.

The declaration further called for health ministers to participate in
trade negotiations, more training of health professionals in
intellectual property rights continued international dialogue on the
impact of patent protection, and encourage studies on medicine prices
and the effect of the TRIPS agreement on public health in their
countries in order to identify alternatives for promote innovation and
technology transfer, permitting availability at accessible costs.