[Ip-health] Extracts of operative paragraphs of WHO "Public health, innovation, essential health research and intellectual property rights: towards a global strategy and plan of action"

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

The WHO resolution entitled, "Public health, innovation, essential
health research and intellectual property rights: towards a global
strategy and plan of action" (A59/A/Conf.Paper No.8 27 May 2006) was
passed in Committee A (WHO's technical matters committee) with full
consensus.  The draft working group consultations wrapped up at around
7:30-8 PM last night and were chaired by a representative from the Swiss
delegation.  Here below are some key extracts from the operative parts
of the resolution.  Hopefully, WHO will publish the official version of
this resolution onto its website soon.

Paragraph 3(2) appears to grant the European Commission a wider role in
global public health matters which have traditionally been the under the
purview of national governments of the European Communities and their
Member States.

Thiru Balasubramaniam

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<SNIP>

3.   DECIDES:

(1) to establish, in accordance with Rule 42 of the Rules of Procedure
of the World Health Assembly, 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 disproportionately affect developing countries, proposing
clear objectives and priorities for research and development, and
estimating funding needs in this area;

(2) that regional economic integration organizations constituted by
sovereign States, Members of WHO, to which their Member States have
transferred competence over matters governed by this resolution,
including the competence to enter into international legally binding
regulations, may participate, in accordance with Rule 55 of the Rules of
Procedure of the World Health Assembly, in the work of the
intergovernmental working group referred to under paragraph (1):

(3) that the above-mentioned working group shall report to the Sixtieth
World Health Assembly through the Executive Board on the progress made,
giving particular attention to needs-driven research and other potential
areas for early implementation.

(4) that the working group shall submit the final global strategy and
plan of action to the Sixty-first World Health Assembly through the
Executive Board;


4.   REQUESTS the Director-General:

(1) to convene immediately the intergovernmental working group and to
allocate the necessary resources to it;

(2) to invite, as observers at the sessions of the intergovernmental
working group, representatives of non-Member States, of liberation
movements referred to in resolution WHA27.37, of organizations of the
United Nations system, of intergovernmental organizations with which WHO
has established effective relations, and of nongovernmental
organizations in official relations with WHO, who shall attend the
sessions of the working group in accordance with the relevant Rules of
Procedure and resolutions of the Health Assembly;

(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;

(4) to continue to issue public health-based research and development
reports, identifying from a public health perspective, gaps and needs
related to pharmaceuticals, and to report on them periodically:

(5) to continue to monitor, from a public health perspective, in
consultation as appropriate with other international organizations, the
impact of intellectual property rights and other issues addressed in the
Commission's report, on the development of, and access to, health care
products, and report thereon to the Health Assembly.