[Ip-health] IP-Watch: WHO IP Submissions Going Public; Working Paper Ready In July

Tue Apr 3 05:17:26 2007

<SNIP>

  Sixteen member states of the World Health Organization have submitted
their views on the way forward for an intergovernmental working group
on public health and intellectual property, according to a senior WHO
official. The views are expected to be posted online this week.

<SNIP>

Elil Renganathan of the WHO IGWG secretariat told Intellectual Property
Watch that the submissions from member states would be posted to WHO=92s
website as soon as 3 April. The original deadline for these submissions
was end of February, but some member states needed more time, he said.
WHO now will turn these into a working document, which should be ready
in July, Renganathan said.

<SNIP>

An official from Portugal, which takes over the EU presidency on 1
July, told Intellectual Property Watch that it also planns to hold
consultations with member states on the issue, probably in September or
October. It already has started holding bilateral talks with Brazil, he
said.

The Portuguese government strategy will be oriented toward action given
the tight schedule of the IGWG. The second and last meeting of the IGWG
is scheduled for November, and it has until May 2008 to come up with a
roadmap in the form of a =93global strategy and plan of action=94 as to how
research and development into, but also access to, medicines for
diseases disproportionately affecting developing countries may be
secured.

A Swiss official said that the constructive spirit under which the
resolution founding the IGWG had been reached was key to the process,
noting that this spirit had been lacking at the December meeting (IPW,
Public Health, 11 December 2006) and at the Executive Board meeting in
January. At that meeting, Kenya and Switzerland circulated a proposal
on early implementation issues, which was later withdrawn. The proposal
will not be re-submitted at the World Health Assembly in May, he said.

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3/4/2007

WHO IP Submissions Going Public; Working Paper Ready In July

Tove Iren S. Gerhardsen
BRUSSELS - Sixteen member states of the World Health Organization have
submitted their views on the way forward for an intergovernmental
working group on public health and intellectual property, according to
a senior WHO official. The views are expected to be posted online this
week.

These documents relate to the WHO Intergovernmental Working Group on
Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property (=93IGWG=94), which
will provide a plan on how to boost the development of medicines for
diseases in poor countries by May 2008. It held its first meeting in
December 2006, where it was decided that countries could submit their
views on an outcome document from the meeting
(IPW, Public Health, 30 January 2007).

Elil Renganathan of the WHO IGWG secretariat told Intellectual Property
Watch that the submissions from member states would be posted to WHO=92s
website as soon as 3 April. The original deadline for these submissions
was end of February, but some member states needed more time, he said.
WHO now will turn these into a working document, which should be ready
in July, Renganathan said.

Regional WHO meetings are being held on the IGWG. Europe region
meetings are being held in Turkey and Moscow, and a meeting was held by
the regional office for Southeast Asia in early March, he said. Another
source said that the Moscow meeting was to reach out to regional WHO
members and get them involved in the IGWG process as they are facing a
rising rate of diseases such as HIV/AIDS.

At the World Health Assembly in May there will be a technical briefing,
Renganathan said, and a progress report will be discussed. Finally, a
second online hearing is scheduled for August and September, he said.

Renganathan said there had been =93a lot of engagement from member
states=94 and other stakeholders on the IGWG, showing a shift since the
Executive Board meeting in January when more activity was called for.

The IGWG was the topic of an expert workshop held by the German
presidency of the European Union and the European Commission in
Brussels on 2 April (see related story to come). The Commission also is
planning to hold a meeting on the issue with civil society in late May
or early June.

An official from Portugal, which takes over the EU presidency on 1
July, told Intellectual Property Watch that it also planns to hold
consultations with member states on the issue, probably in September or
October. It already has started holding bilateral talks with Brazil, he
said.

The Portuguese government strategy will be oriented toward action given
the tight schedule of the IGWG. The second and last meeting of the IGWG
is scheduled for November, and it has until May 2008 to come up with a
roadmap in the form of a =93global strategy and plan of action=94 as to how
research and development into, but also access to, medicines for
diseases disproportionately affecting developing countries may be
secured.

A Swiss official said that the constructive spirit under which the
resolution founding the IGWG had been reached was key to the process,
noting that this spirit had been lacking at the December meeting (IPW,
Public Health, 11 December 2006) and at the Executive Board meeting in
January. At that meeting, Kenya and Switzerland circulated a proposal
on early implementation issues, which was later withdrawn. The proposal
will not be re-submitted at the World Health Assembly in May, he said.

The Swiss official said that in his view some 80 percent of the IGWG
topics drawn from the recommendations of the 2006 report of the WHO
Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and Public
Health dealt with non-IP issues. He said that IP should not be left
out, but distinguished these issues from the public health issues (such
as R &D for these diseases) which he said could be dealt with first
before moving to the =93controversial issues.=94

Separately, Chancellor Angela Merkel has announced that IP will
constitute an important part of the agenda of the Group of Eight
meeting in Heiligendamm, Germany in June. Also, at a HIV/AIDS
conference in Bremen in March, access to drugs for diseases such as
HIV/AIDS was highlighted and written into a declaration from the
meeting, sources said.

Tove Gerhardsen may be reached at tgerhardsen@ip-watch.ch.

---------------------------------
Thiru Balasubramaniam
Geneva Representative
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
voice +41.22.791.6727
fax +41.22.723.2988
mobile +41 76 508 0997
thiru@keionline.org