[Ip-health] Day 1 IGWG int'l press coverage

Tue Nov 6 05:35:39 2007

1. Reuters: WHO health chief urges fast action on cheap drugs
2. AP: WHO Aims to Balance Drug Companies, Poor
3. AFP: WHO chief urges greater access to medicines in poor countries
4. VOA: WHO Chief Wants Access To Medicines For Poor Countries
5. Xinghua: WHO chief calls for affordable drugs for poor countries

1. http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnL05558687.html
WHO health chief urges fast action on cheap drugs
Mon 5 Nov 2007, 18:28 GMT

By Robert Evans

GENEVA, Nov 5 (Reuters) - World Health Organisation (WHO) chief Margaret
Chan called for quick global agreement on Monday to ensure people in
poor countries can get the drugs they need at affordable prices.

She issued the appeal at the start of a week-long meeting of health
officials from developed and developing nations on how to combine
low-priced drug supplies with continued incentives for pharmaceutical
companies to develop new medicines.

"The challenge is to work on multiple fronts to meet the immediate need
for equitable access to quality affordable medicines, while also at the
same time working to stimulate innovation," Chan said.

Delegates to the meeting are discussing a WHO-proposed draft plan that
has been condemned by pharmaceutical companies. Richer countries home to
much of the global drug industry are also cool to the plan.

The industry argues it needs strong revenues from drug sales to finance
research and development into new treatments, including for diseases
prevalent in developing countries.

Critics of the WHO plan also argue that it would take the U.N. health
body into regulating issues of patent protection and copyright that
belong in the World Trade Organisation and the World Intellectual
Property Organisation.

But developing countries and health activists argue the WHO, through the
IGWG, has every right to involve itself in issues of intellectual
property when they touch on primary health care.

"If something is affecting public health, then the WHO is the proper
place for it to be dealt with," Kenya's IGWG representative A.E.O.
Ogwell told a news conference.

African countries attending the IGWG session "want this meeting to come
up with answers to the problems that we are facing", he said. "We want
to finish the whole negotiation this time. We are not interested in
lengthy talks."

Medecins Sans Frontieres and the U.S.-based Knowledge Ecology
International told the news conference that the current research and
development model for new drugs was inadequate. (Editing by Caroline Drees)

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2. WHO Aims to Balance Drug Companies, Poor

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5heOIFdi-jEybPgyDHd1_WijtjgQQD8SNGQ200
By BRADLEY S. KLAPPER =96 14 hours ago

GENEVA (AP) =97 The U.N. health chief urged countries on Monday to come up
with new ways to make medicine for HIV/AIDS and other diseases more
affordable in the world's poorest countries, without stifling innovation
among pharmaceutical companies.

The World Health Organization's 193 member states are hoping to forge a
global strategy on the highly divisive issues of drug development,
patenting and pricing by the end of the week.

"People should not be denied access to lifesaving and health-promoting
interventions for unfair reasons," said Dr. Margaret Chan, WHO's
director-general, in opening the agency's first meeting devoted to the
subject since May, when the United States walked out of a negotiating
session and dissociated itself from a WHO resolution.

Chan said she was aware that the "price of medicines and other products
can be prohibitive, effectively blocking access to care." But, she
added, public health needs innovation.

"Resistance develops and drugs fail, creating an urgent need for second-
and third-line medicines," she told the meeting in Geneva. "We have seen
this problem most acutely with HIV/AIDS. We are seeing it again with the
spread of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, which is far more
costly and difficult to treat."

Under rules agreed by the World Trade Organization, countries can issue
so-called "compulsory licenses" to disregard patent rights, but only
after negotiating with the patent owners and paying them adequate
compensation. If they declare a public health emergency, governments can
skip the negotiating.

Brazil and Thailand have invoked the procedure to import cheap generic
versions of American AIDS drugs, among other medicines, to treat
patients who developed resistance to older anti-retrovirals and needed
more expensive, second-line drugs.

The moves by Brazil and Thailand were praised by health campaigners but
criticized by industry groups. The United States later placed Thailand
on a copyright watch list of nations where American companies face
problems protecting intellectual property rights. Countries on the list
are under extra scrutiny and can face trade sanctions if alleged
violations worsen.

The international aid group Oxfam says compulsory licensing almost never
occurs because developing countries face pressure from rich governments
acting on behalf of their drug companies. Its report last year on drug
access cited WHO statistics that 74 percent of AIDS medicines are still
under monopoly, and that 77 percent of Africans still lack any access to
AIDS treatment.

On the Net:

* WHO,: http://www.who.int

----

3. AFP
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hJJ0SMTxvFTFLyJUcBGFKPGtKmmg
WHO chief urges greater access to medicines in poor countries

9 hours ago

GENEVA (AFP) =97 The head of the World Health Organisation on Monday said
it was vital that patients in poor countries are not denied access to
medicines against diseases like HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis on cost grounds.

"I am fully committed to equitable access" to medicines, WHO Director
General Margaret Chan told the opening session of a special working
group on public health, innovation and intellectual property.

"I am aware that the price of medicines and other products can be
prohibitive, effectively blocking access to care," Chan said.

The WHO chief acknowledged the need for innovation in public health and
drug research -- which pharmaceutical companies say is funded by profits
on sales -- and the complex nature of the debate.

"The challenge is to work on multiple fronts: to meet the immediate need
for equitable access to quality, affordable medicines, while also, at
the same time, working to stimulate innovation," she said.

Equally, "we cannot allow the costs of health care to drive impoverished
households even deeper into poverty," she warned.

The working group was set up last year in the wake of a WHO-commissioned
report of the same name, headed by former Swiss President Ruth Dreifuss.

Its report called on the pharmaceutical industry to slash the price of
drugs sold in developing countries -- something companies insist they
have already done in many cases.

The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and
Associations argues that the price and patent issue falls outside the
mandate of the WHO and should instead be discussed only at the World
Trade Organisation.

Earlier this year, Dreifuss accused Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis
of trying to intimidate India in a legal case against the country's
patent law.

Novartis unsuccessfully appealed against a rejection of its patent
application for the Glivec cancer drug, and challenged Article 3D of
India's new patent law, which does not grant patents for modifications
of existing drugs.
Hosted by Google
Copyright =A9 2007 AFP. All rights reserved.

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4. Voice of America
WHO Chief Wants Access To Medicines For Poor Countries
By Lisa Schlein
Geneva
05 November 2007
http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-11-05-voa63.cfm

Schlein report (mp3) - Download 608k audio clip
Listen to Schlein report (mp3) audio clip
Director-General of the World Health Organization says people in poor
countries should not be denied medicine they need to treat illnesses
such as HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis because of the cost. Lisa Schlein
reports for VOA from Geneva WHO chief Margaret Chan outlined the
problems facing developing countries at the opening of a week-long
conference set to tackle the problem of providing essential medicine to
poor countries.

World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan, 02 Nov 2007
Dr. Margaret Chan, 02 Nov 2007
WHO Director-General Margaret Chan says many sick people in developing
countries die because they cannot afford medicine that can cure them. In
some cases, she says resistance to diseases develops because they fail
to be treated promptly and properly.

She blames much of this on the inability of the poor to get hold of the
medicine and health care they need.

"I am fully committed to equitable access," said Dr. Chan. "People
should not be denied access to life-saving and health-promoting
interventions for unfair reasons. I am aware that the price of medicines
and other products can be prohibitive, effectively blocking access to
care. I have seen studies that show the limit, in dollars, to what
people are able to pay to preserve even something as vital as their
eyesight."

The WHO chief acknowledges the need for innovation in public health and
drug research. Advocacy groups accuse pharmaceutical companies of
failing to do the research needed on diseases that disproportionately
affect the poor because there is little profit in it.

Dr. Chan draws a link between good health and the ability of families to
work their way out of poverty.

"The challenge is to work on multiple fronts: to meet the immediate need
for equitable access to quality, affordable medicines, while also
working, at the same time, to stimulate innovation," she said. "The
route to addressing these concerns passes through many other
territories, including those where legal, economic, and trade issues
have prominence. This is the reality."

The so-called WHO Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health,
Innovation and Intellectual Property was created last year in the wake
of a WHO-commissioned report. It called for the pharmaceutical industry
to slash the price of drugs sold in developing countries. Many drug
companies say they have already done so.

The negotiations taking place are aimed at drawing up a plan of action
and strategy for research and development that will be beneficial for
poor countries. The final plan of action will be presented to the World
Health Assembly in May.

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5. WHO chief calls for affordable drugs for poor countries
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-11/06/content_7017383.htm

GENEVA, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- The head of the World Health Organization
(WHO) said on Monday that poor countries urgently need effective and
affordable medicines to deal with health threats such as HIV/AIDS and
tuberculosis.

"I am aware that the price of medicines and other products can be
prohibitive, effectively blocking access to care," said WHO
Director-General Dr Margaret Chan.

"Many diseases of the poor do not have good therapeutic drugs, or the
prices are out of reach," she told a meeting of the WHO's
Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation and
Intellectual Property.

Chan said HIV/AIDS and chronic diseases, which now impose their greatest
burden on low- and middle-income countries, makes the need for effective
and affordable medicines all the more critical.

"When people need to take medicines for a lifetime, the costs increase
enormously for households, health services, and government budgets."

The WHO head stressed that she was fully committed to equitable access
to medicines.

She said the objective of the UN health agency was to reduce poverty
through better health, so the world cannot "allow the costs of health
care to drive impoverished households even deeper into poverty."

The Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation and
Intellectual Property was established last year with an aim to promote
better access to medicines and other healthcare products for patients in
poor countries.

The week-long meeting of the working group is meant to prepare a global
strategy and plan of action, which is scheduled to be presented to the
World health Assembly in May 2008.

--
Sarah Rimmington
Attorney
Essential Action, Access to Medicines Project
Washington, DC
Tel: (202) 387-8030
Cell: (202) 422-2687
www.essentialaction.org/access/