[Ip-health] Financial Times: WHO to prompt R&D for poorer countries

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

WHO to prompt R&D for poorer countries
By Frances Williams in Geneva
Published: May 29 2006 03:00 | Last updated: May 29 2006 03:00

The World Health Organisation is to start talks on a global plan of
action for research on priority health needs in developing countries.
The WHO will hope to encourage development of medicines neglected by
private industry.

The WHO's 192 member states approved a consensus resolution on Saturday
establishing an intergovernmental working party to come up with a
strategy and action plan within two years.

Calling the move a "breakthrough", M=E9decins Sans Fronti=E8res, the medica=
l
humanitarian group, said it would ensure that patients' needs rather
than profits drove innovation.

The WHO accord followed what health officials called a "miraculous"
change of tack by the US, which had previously indicated strong
opposition to any steps that might imply a weakening or sidestepping of
the drug patenting system.

In return, developing countries led by Brazil and Kenya dropped demands
for a binding research and development framework and explicit support
for "open access" and other models of promoting health research outside
the patent system.

The global strategy will implement the recommendations of a report to
the WHO last month by an independent commission. That report said the
current intellectual property regime did not provide effective
incentives for companies to develop treatments for patients in countries
where there was little prospect of making a profit. But it stopped short
of calling for fundamental reform.

An article this month in medical journal The Lancet said only 21 - 1.3
per cent - of nearly 1,560 drugs developed over the past 30 years were
for neglected tropical diseases and tuberculosis, which account for 12
per cent of the global disease burden.

* WHO members failed to agree on setting a new date for destroying the
remaining known stockpiles of the smallpox virus, nearly 30 years after
a worldwide vaccination campaign eradicated the deadly disease.

A previous 2002 deadline was waived by the WHO to allow more time for
research on new vaccines and treatments to combat the virus after the
2001 attacks on the US and the anthrax scare there raised fears that
smallpox could be used as a weapon by terrorists.

The US and Russia, which hold the only declared stockpiles in two
high-security laboratories, oppose early destruction, saying more
research is needed. But others say preserving the stocks poses a greater
risk, since release could kill millions.