[Ip-health] Bangladesh submission to WHO IGWG on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property Rights
James Packard Love
james.love@keionline.org
Thu Mar 1 07:09:10 2007
http://www.keionline.org/misc-docs/BangladeshIGWGsubmissionMar-07.pdf
Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
Public Health Section
No-MOH&FW /DS(PH)/2007 / 3 Date: 28 February, 2007
Dr. Elil Renganathan
Executive Secretary
WHO's Secretariat on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property
World Health Organization
20, avenue Appia
1211 Geneva 27
Switzerland
Dear Dr. Renganathan
Please accept the attached as the official submission of the Ministry
of Health and Family Welfare of the Government of the People's
Republic of Bangladesh regarding the working documents of WHO's
Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health,
Innovation and Intellectual Property (IGWG).
We appreciate your attention to this submission and look forward to
participating in the IGWG process in the future. Thank you for this
opportunity to submit these comments and we wish you good luck in
this important mission.
Sincerely,
Attached: Bangladesh submission (3 pages)
-----------------------------------
Submission by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
of the
People's Republic of Bangladesh
to the
WHO's Intergovernmental Working Group
on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property Rights
February 28, 2007
The People's Republic of Bangladesh makes this submission in response
to the invitation from the Director-General of the World Health
Organization (WHO) to submit comments regarding the working documents
of WHO's Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation
and Intellectual Property (lGWG). We welcome this opportunity to
provide the input of Bangladesh, one of the world's 50 Least
Developed Countries (LDCs), one of the few developing countries on
track to meet certain Millennium Development Goals, and a country
with a fast-growing, world-class generic pharmaceutical
sector.
General Comments
Bangladesh believes it is critical that at every stage of this
process the IGWG makes it a top priority to engage and incorporate
the input of developing countries, as its mission is to address
primarily Type II and Type III diseases, those disproportionately
affecting developing countries. Toward this end and with all due
appreciation to the IGWG for its efforts thus far, we believe that in
order for all Member States to have a genuine opportunity to submit
and revise proposals and consider and respond to others, more time is
needed. Bangladesh recommends seeking an extension of one year for
the IGWG's work, postponing its delivery of the global strategy and
plan of action until the Sixty-second WHA in early 2009.
Such an extended period will allow stakeholders time to meet
regionally regarding priority-setting for Type II and Type III
diseases and to help the IGWG "propose clear objectives and
priorities for R&D," as required under WHA 59.24. Such priority
setting will be of great assistance to all Members States, private
foundations, and other actors in appropriately allocating resources
and should not be rushed. More time will also enable Member States to
examine several important new proposals, including multi-lateral or
regional patent pools, prize funds and a global medical research and
development (R&D) treaty, and we encourage the IGWG to schedule
meetings to specifically examine these substantive proposals.
While we were unable to send a delegation to the first meeting of the
IGWG in December 2006, upon reviewing the IGWG's report of this
meeting we were very pleased with the contributions made by the other
delegations from the SEARO region, including especially Thailand and
India, and we would like to associate ourselves with their excellent
contributions.
Capacity Buildinq and Technoloqy Transfer
Bangladesh recommends paying special attention to the capacity
building "areas for action" identified in Subparagraphs 4(c), 5(b), 5
(c), 5(d), and 5(f) of the "Elements of a plan of action" (AIPHI/IGWG/
1/5, Annex 1) ("the Plan of Action document"). These areas point the
way toward increased investment in research and development in
developing countries that will have a lasting, positive impact on
their innovative capacity. For example, though Bangladesh is
presently a low prevalence country for HIV/AIDS, we remain vulnerable
and must be proactive. Bangladesh's research institutions and
burgeoning pharmaceutical sector are well poised to absorb knowledge
and new technologies from the developed world, and have the potential
to serve as a manufacturing center of generic versions of
antiretrovirals (ARVs) for HIV/AIDS for domestic use and for all
LDCs. Therefore, we recommend that Subparagraph 5(f) is focused and
perhaps amended to ensure that developed countries invest resources,
share technology and engage in capacity building projects for
research and production of ARVs within LDCs.
Submission of the Government of Bangladesh to the IGWG
February 28, 2007
-- --- ---
Further, Bangladesh may be unique among LOCs in its exceptional
innovative research capacity, as home to world class scientific
research and capacity building institutions, such as the
International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh
(ICOOR,B), the National Institute of Preventive & Social Medicine,
the Bangladesh Institute for Research on Diabetes, Endocrine and
Metabolic Disorders, the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control
and Research, and the Bangladesh Medical Research Council. Since the
knowledge and research capacity of such institutions offer particular
value for other LOCs, we recommend intensifying LOC-LOC partnerships
and networks, and promoting special incentives under Subparagraph 4
(b) and Paragraph 5 of the Plan of Action document for LOC-LOC
technology transfer and capacity building, as a distinct subset of
South-South collaboration.
Access to Existinq Medicines - Beyond TRIPS Flexibilities
One fundamental component of the IGWG's mission is to make
recommendations for increasing access to existing medicines, vaccines
and other technologies. Private incentives for financing innovation
in medicine have until now been linked to high prices for medicines,
whereby innovation is rewarded and future innovation is financed by
the end user of the patented product. As the Commission on
Intellectual Property, Innovation and Public Health recognized in its
final report, while this may work relatively well for wealthy
countries, it simply will not work in LOCs or other countries where
consumers are not able to pay such prices and could create
significant barriers to access to medicines in Bangladesh beginning
in 2016.
In addressing this issue, it is necessary for the IGWG to go beyond
reiterating existing TRIPS flexibilities. We encourage the IGWG to
make specific recommendations regarding more effective and
sustainable mechanisms for increasing access to existing medicines.
Measures to increase voluntary patent licensing initiatives (such as
the recent launch of "Baby Zinc" in Bangladesh) and non-voluntary
licensing to generic drug manufactures would ensure that a
competitive global market exists for generic products of acceptable
quality. Multi-lateral or regional patent pools have the potential to
prevent developing countries from having to contend individually with
the pressures typically targeted at countries using TRIPS
flexibilities, and should be examined.
Bangladesh recommends that, in addition to seeking other
opportunities to incorporate these comments in its final global
strategy and plan of action, the IGWG put special emphasis on
Subparagraph 5(e) of the Plan of Action document, and that its scope
is expanded to include downstream as well as upstream usage of
technologies.
Innovation in Future Medicines
Creating new mechanisms for increasing access to existing medicines
will only succeed if equal attention is paid to stimulating and
rewarding investment in innovation. Therefore, another critical
component of the IGWG's work includes proposing new obligations on
governments to support public sector R&O and to provide effective
incentives for private innovation for Type II and Type III diseases.
Two new systems have been proposed to address these issues and they
deserve serious consideration.
Prize Fund Model
We note with great interest a shift in the global policy discussion,
away from the status quo of TRIPScompliant patent regimes for
medicines and toward new models for rewarding innovation, such as
prize funds. The prize fund model separates the incentives for
innovation from the prices of medicines. Innovation would be rewarded
directly from nationally, regionally or globally managed prize funds
based on improvements in health care outcomes, while ensuring low
prices for medical innovations from generic competition immediately
upon market entry. Funding for such prize funds could come from any
number of instruments, such as a UNITAIO-style airline tax, taxes on
currency transactions, or direct contributions by governments.
The prize fund model has been introduced in U.S. legislation and
favorably discussed by a number of prominent economists and health
experts, including Tim Hubbard of the Wellcome Trust, James Love of
Submission of the Government of Bangladesh to the IGWG
February 28, 2007
the Consumer Project on Technology, and Nobel prize-winning economist
Joseph Stiglitz of Columbia University. We urge the IGWG to fully
explore it and make specific recommendations on it to the WHA.
Bangladesh recommends that, in addition to seeking other
opportunities to incorporate these comments in its final global
strategy and plan of action, the IGWG add the following text to
Subparagraph 6(c) of the Plan of Action document: ", such as the
prize fund model".
Global Medical R&D Treaty
We were particularly pleased that the SEARO and EMRO regions
officially supported consideration of the proposed global treaty on
medical R&D at the December 2006 IGWG meeting, and we join them in
calling for its formal consideration. This proposal, first submitted
to the WHO in 2005 by 162 leading medical researchers, NGOs,
parliamentarians, government officials, and other stakeholders,
presents a potentially historic opportunity for countries to
simultaneously pursue their moral obligations to ensure access to
medicines, while meeting appropriate obligations for investments in
medical R&D for Type II & Type III diseases. Such a treaty warrants
examination as an alternative to the existing WTO requirement that
all member countries become TRIPS-compliant for medicines.
Bangladesh recognizes that any system of sustainable financing for
priority medical R&D will cost money. We believe that everyone should
participate in funding priority R&D, as appropriate. Under the
proposed treaty, funding obligations could be tied to any number of
macroeconomic indicators. While mandatory treaty obligations might
not be achievable immediately, the IGWG should consider recommending
incentives based on non-binding, voluntary standards for investment.
As a nation required to become TRIPS-compliant by 2016, one possible
incentive of particular interest to Bangladesh would be to reward
countries that met such standards with lower patent requirements than
those mandated by TRIPS.
We recommend that, in addition to seeking other opportunities to
incorporate these comments in its final global strategy and plan of
action, the IGWG provide sufficient resources and time for Member
States to meaningfully consider and provide recommendations regarding
the treaty proposal mentioned in Subparagraph 3(i) of the Plan of
Action document.
Bangladesh is confident that given an extended time period and more
opportunities to meet with other Member States, we will be able to
provide more specific and helpful input to the IGWG in its effort to
provide the WHA a global strategy and plan of action. We appreciate
your consideration of these comments and look forward to
participating in this important process.
Submission of the Government of Bangladesh to the IGWG
February 28, 2007
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James Packard Love
Knowledge Ecology International
http://www.keionline.org
james.love@keionline.org
Washington, DC +1.202.332.2670
"If everyone thinks the same: No one thinks." Bill Walton"