[Ip-health] WikiLeaks: Big Pharma infiltrates WHO Expert Working Group process; WikiLeaks infiltrates Big Pharma

[Sarah Rimmington]

This is a very disturbing set of documents.  It appears that the
brand-name industry is on the verge of  successfully undermining the
multi-year WHO process meant to propose solutions to solve the
intertwined innovation and access challenges facing developing
countries, which stem from strong underlying research and WHA
resolutions indicating that the current IP system does not meet these
challenges.

The draft report -- much to the brand-name industry's delight --
embraces the status quo and rejects the feasibility of almost every
single important proposal aimed at truly solving these complicated
problems, such as the Bolivia-Barbados TB, Chagas Disease and Cancer
Prize proposals and the proposed R&D Treaty.  It also fails to even
address one central concern of global civil society and developing
countries by finding that the proposal for removing data exclusivity is
"inapplicable."

Nothing proves how aligned this report is with the status quo better
than the leaked comparative analysis of the document from pharma
trade-group the IFPMA which indicates it  "fully share[s]" many of the
key concerns in the report.  IFPMA also indicated it is pleased about
the "many references to the importance of intellectual property as well
as quote [sic] from interviewees that reiterate how important IP is to
achieve further innovation."

Why bother setting out a global strategy on public health, innovation
and intellectual property if in the end the Expert Working Group is
likely going to reject every single solution on the table?

Sarah Rimmington
Attorney
Essential Action, Access to Medicines Project
Washington, DC
Tel: +1 (202) 387-8030
Cell: +1 (202) 422-2687
www.essentialaction.org/access/

Follow me on twitter at http://twitter.com/sarahrimmington



Thiru Balasubramaniam wrote:
> http://tllg.net/gp3x6z
>
> Released December 9, 2009
>
> Summary
>
> This is a confidential pharmaceutical industry trade association
> dossier about the WHO Expert Working Group (EWG) on R&D Financing.
>
> The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers &
> Associations (IFPMA; "Big Pharma") gave its members 4 documents: a non-
> public draft report of the WHO EWG and a non-public Comparative
> Analysis done by the working group, the IFPMA Overview of the EWG
> Comparative Analysis, and IFPMA summary slide on the EWG Draft Report.
>
> The compilation of documents shows the influence of "Big Pharma" on
> the policy making decisions of the WHO, the UN body safeguarding
> public health. These confidential documents were obtained by the drug
> industry before their public release to WHO member states (scheduled
> to be released May 2010). The document also illustrates that the WHO
> expert group was highly responsive to industry lobbying =97 a result
> that public health groups had feared since early 2009, when the expert
> group met with the industry, but refused to meet with public health
> groups known to be industry critics.
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> Thiru Balasubramaniam
> Geneva Representative
> Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
> thiru@keionline.org
>
>
> Tel: +41 22 791 6727
> Mobile: +41 76 508 0997
>
>
>
>
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