[Ip-health] IFPMA (case study for APCO Worldwide)

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

http://www.apcoworldwide.com/content/case-studies/ifpma.cfm


    The Challenge

The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers'
Associations (IFPMA) comprises 60-plus members of regional and national
associations representing research-based pharmaceutical companies and
other manufacturers of prescription medicines.

When the IFPMA came to APCO, it faced daunting challenges. The group had
recently emerged from a bruising legal battle in South Africa over
generic drugs =96 an issue that captured the media spotlight and led to
highly emotional criticism of the industry. The debate over generics
merged with the equally emotional issues of globalization and the power
of multinationals to bring the industry's reputation under nearly
constant attack. At the same time, the WTO was preparing for its
Ministerial Conference in Doha and a number of countries were arguing
that rules on intellectual property rights should be relaxed to allow
countries to deal with public health crises. The pharmaceutical industry
faced a disastrous prospect =96 that changes to intellectual property
rights would seriously undermine patents and massively devalue their
investment in new drugs.


    The Solution

APCO's role was to help prevent this scenario from unfolding.

Our strategy included:

    * Anticipating the strategies of the key players in the debate =96
      from the most vocal to the nearly invisible =96 and analyzing the
      impact they might have on the IFPMA's position and strategies.
    * Marshalling a set of compelling arguments which, in the short
      term, would make revision of the TRIPs agreement unnecessary, or
      even undesirable, and, in the medium term, begin to shift the
      debate on HIV/AIDS to reflect the complexities of the real world.
    * Identifying the most influential policy-makers who would determine
      the outcome of the WTO negotiations, as well as a broader audience
      of key opinion-leaders who would help shape the debate on
      HIV/AIDS, poverty and development.
    * Communicating the IFPMA's core arguments to priority audiences in
      a convincing manner.
    * Demonstrating that the IFPMA was ready and willing to help address
      the healthcare challenge facing developing countries, while
      maintaining key aspects of the TRIPs agreement.


    The Result

APCO's ability to work at senior levels of the international policy
community and influence policy outcomes led to a successful defense of
the intellectual property rights agreement at the WTO Ministerial
Conference. The text was not re-opened.

The IFPMA renewed APCO's contract as it set out to engage afresh in the
debate on access to medicines, the role of patents and the contribution
of the pharmaceutical industry to the global health challenge. APCO is
now building a new dialogue between the IFPMA and the G8.