[Ip-health] Financial Times: Officials fail to agree on flu virus sharing

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

Officials fail to agree on flu virus sharing

By Andrew Jack in London and John Aglionby in Jakarta

Published: May 23 2007 05:29 | Last updated: May 23 2007 13:52

The swift development of new vaccines to protect against a future flu
pandemic was threatened on Wednesday after countries failed to resolve
differences over the rules for sharing virus samples.

On its final day, the annual World Health Assembly in Geneva agreed a
face-saving resolution to support sharing among World Health
Organisation researchers but deferred a decision on clarifying their
use by others including vaccine manufacturers.

The action followed tough tactics to push for greater and more
affordable access to pandemic vaccines in the developing world led by
Indonesia, which has been worst hit to date with human deaths from the
lethal H5N1 flu virus.

Indonesia said last week that after a six month moratorium it had
resumed supplying its human H5N1 samples to World Health Organisation
(WHO) collaborating centres, in line with the long-standing practice
originally developed for the production of annual seasonal flu
vaccines.

It welcomed the compromise resolution that urges the WHO=92s member
states to support =93the timely sharing of viruses=94 and =93to aim to ensu=
re
and promote transparent, fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising
from ... vaccines and other technologies.=94

=93We didn=92t get everything for Indonesia that we wanted but what we have
is an agreement where the world is the winner,=94 Triyono Soendoro, a
deputy health minister, told the Financial Times. =94There is no loser.
The system has been revised.=94

However, Indonesia has several times announced it would resume sharing
and then ceased again in the past few months. China has not provided
samples for a year. Pressure has since grown, with Margaret Chan, the
WHO director-general, last week accusing countries that did not
cooperate of putting global public health at risk.

The latest resolution delays for at least two months revisions to the
terms of reference for =93oversight mechanisms ... draft standard terms
and conditions for sharing viruses=94 between the WHO and third parties.

It calls for an interdisciplinary working group to draw up conditions
for virus sharing based on =93overriding principles=94 permission that must
be sought directly from countries supplying samples for any use beyond
the WHO=92s terms of reference.

It stresses that vaccine manufacturers should be able to gain =93full
access=94 to viruses =93in times of public health emergencies=94, but does
not clarify the current situation when they require the latest H5N1
strains to help develop and test prototypes.

WHO officials said the working group was unlikely to meet before July
at the earliest, and failure to agree would shift a decision to another
meeting in October and ultimately to next year=92s health assembly.

Existing practice is to allow samples to be shared freely between the
WHO and vaccine manufacturers, reducing any delays in the development
of new vaccines which currently take several months to produce.

Indonesia initially ceased to share samples last year after it
discovered that - in line with existing arrangements - CSL of Australia
had developed a prototype pandemic flu vaccine for sale made using
Indonesian strains provided via the WHO.

Sharing is essential in the fight against flu, because the virus is
constantly mutating and new vaccines must constantly be produced to be
effective to each new variant. Several companies are developing
prototype vaccines for H5N1, which in a mutated form could be the basis
for a pandemic.

---------------------------------
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