[Ip-health] Of fog and thickets: The WHO IGWG process

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

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

Drug Development | Thiru, from Geneva | WHO IGWG | Patent and
Innovation Policy
Of fog and thickets: The WHO IGWG process
May 22nd, 2008 by Thiru Balasubramaniam

The WHO IGWG drafting group meeting in Salle XXIII of the Palais des
Nations during this week=92s World Health Assembly is charged with
hammering out a consensus global strategy that would inter alia, secure

     an enhanced and sustainable basis for needs-driven, essential
health research and development relevant to diseases that
disproportinately affect developing countries, proposing clear
objectives and priorities for research and development, and estimating
funding needs in in this area.

Eighteen bracketed paragraphs remain in the IGWG Global Strategy. As
only Member States are permitted to attend the drafting group
negotiations, it is quite difficult to gather reliable information as
to what is being negotiated inside.

Last evening, the drafting group shifted from formal mode to informal
mode. According to one source, this phase shift from formal to
informal mode precipitated a change in room as well as the fact that
representatives of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the World
Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) not being present in the
informal discussions.
As my colleague Judit Rius Sanjuan mentioned in her note much of the
negotiation last night revolved around the issue of a global databases
on the status of health-related patents and the issue of TRIPS plus
language. The bracketed language states:

     5.2.b [avoid the incorporation of TRIPS-plus measures in any
trade agreements and in national legislation that may have negative
impact on access to health products or treatments in developing
countries] or [encourage those Member States, which so desire, when
incorporating measures beyond TRIPS to take into account the impact on
access to health products in light of public health priorities without
prejudice to the sovereign rights of Member States]

.

According to Secretariat and country sources, the provisions related
to a global patent database on the status of health-related patents
and TRIPS plus language were agreed to by consensus. This consensus
language is expected to be made available to the public tomorrow.
Outstanding issues that remain under consideration include:
competition, test data protection and patentability guidelines that
would promote =93high quality patents and while taking into account a
public health perspective.=94 One delegate noted that there may be a
push by certain rich countries to bundle all the unresolved
contentious issues contained within the IGWG global strategy into a
single package. A perspicacious observer to the IGWG process has noted
that the current negotiations are an exercise in =93incremental
debasement=94.

The drafting group is currently meeting now, and a night session from
6:30 PM to 12:00 AM is expected. While remaining =93open ended=94 the IGWG
drafting group has morphed into a green room consultation. The
countries (and regional economic integration organizations) present
according to some sources include: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile,
Colombia, Venezuela, the European Commission, India, Kenya (on behalf
of African Region), Norway, Slovenia,Switzerland, Thailand and the
United States of America.



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Thiru Balasubramaniam
Geneva Representative
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
thiru@keionline.org


Tel: +41 22 791 6727
Mobile: +41 76 508 0997