[Ip-health] KEI blog: Colombian Submission to the WHO IGWG negotiation

[Judit Rius Sanjuan]

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http://www.keionline.org/index.php?option=3Dcom_jd-wp&Itemid=3D39&p=3D105

Colombian Submission to the WHO IGWG negotiation
March 6th, 2008 by Judit Rius Sanjuan

By resolution WHA 59.24, the WHO=92s Intergovernmental Working Group on
Public Health, Innovation, and Intellectual Property (IGWG) has the
goal of producing a Global Strategy and Plan of Action that will
implement the CIPIH report recommendations and =93secure an enhanced and
sustainable basis for needs-driven, essential health research and
development relevant to diseases that disproportionately affect
developing countries, proposing clear objectives and priorities for
research and development, and estimating funding needs in this area.=94

In the context of this negotiation, WHO Member States were asked to
submit comments to the current draft of the Global Strategy (document
A/PHI/IGWG/2/Conf.Paper1/Rev.1) before the second session of the IGWG
resumes from 28 April to 3 May 2008.

So far, 16 countries have submitted comments, including the United
States, Canada, Brazil, China and India. The Colombian government also
has a submission and we have analyzed it with special attention due to
the lack of participation of the Colombian government in sub-regional
meetings (La Paz, Bolivia in August 2007 and Rio, Brazil in September
2007) that have prepared the Latin American countries for this
important negotiation and which resulted in a very important sub-
regional consensus known as the Rio Document.

The Colombian submission was prepared by the Minister of Foreign
Affairs and it focuses on the parts of the Global Strategy that have
not yet been negotiated, parts of elements 5 and 6.

Some of the proposals contained in the submission are problematic, and
are quite close to the U.S. government position in this negotiation,
for example:

a) Colombia is against the WHO having a greater role in providing
technical and policy support on TRIPS flexibilities.

The Colombian submission seeks to minimize the role of WHO in
providing technical and policy support to governments in the
implementation and use of TRIPS flexibilities, for example in
compulsory licenses, appropriate patentability criteria for medical
inventions and the Bolar exception. [See comments on elements 5.2, 5.2
(a), 5.2 (c), 5.3 (f), 6.3 (a), 6.3 (d)]

b) Colombia is against health authorities participating in IP
negotiations.

The Colombian submission proposes deleting element 5.2 (c) which, as
it currently reads, is trying to ensure that the TRIPS flexibilities
are fully implemented, which includes a recommendation to ensure the
participation of health authorities in intellectual property
negotiations.

c) Colombia does not support curbs on TRIPS-plus provisions in
bilateral trade agreements and national legislation.

The Colombian submission proposes the deletion of element 5.2 (b)
which, as it currently reads, is trying to discourage TRIPS-plus
provisions in bilateral trade agreements and/or national legislation
in ways that may have a negative impact on access to health products
or treatments in developing countries.

d) Colombia is against assessing the public health impact of data-
exclusivity regulations.

The Colombian submission proposes deleting element 5.3 (c) which, as
it currently reads, proposes the assessment of the impact of data-
exclusivity regulations on access to drugs in developing countries.

e) Colombia supports patent-registration linkage.

The Colombian submission proposes deleting the last sentence in
element 6.2 (g) which, as it currently reads, calls for clarification
of the working relationship between the drug regulatory authorities
and patent offices. Recommending this deletion, the Colombian
government is trying to avoid the position that patents are private
rights that are not enforced by regulatory authorities. Therefore
supporting a linkage between patent rights and regulatory approvals
that will unnecessarily limit generic competition.

Judit Rius Sanjuan
Attorney at Knowledge Ecology International
www.keionline.org / www.cptech.org
Phone: +1.202.332.2670, x18
Email: judit.rius@keionline.org