[Ip-health] EWG endorsement of HIF

[Aidan Hollis]

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In its report, the Expert Working Group (EWG) established by the World Heal=
th Assembly has issued a welcome endorsement of the Health Impact Fund (HIF=
). The EWG was established to address financing of R&D and proposals for ne=
w and innovative sources of financing to stimulate R&D related to diseases =
mostly prevalent in less developed countries. The EWG has now published an =
executive summary of its findings. The EWG has identified several mechanism=
s as "promising" and deserving of further examination, including specifical=
ly open source drug development, patent pools, the Health Impact Fund, a pr=
iority review voucher scheme, and orphan drug legislation. These mechanisms=
 and others continue to have great potential for improving access to new dr=
ugs in developing countries.

Notably, UNITAID is already proceeding with its HIV/AIDS patent pool, and G=
SK has established a patent pool; the US government has already adopted a p=
riority review voucher scheme, and many countries already have orphan drug =
legislation. It is encouraging that the HIF, as a newer proposal, has been =
included in this group of relatively well-developed "promising" mechanisms.

The EWG has called for further research into the application of the HIF mec=
hanism. Incentives for Global Health has a discussion paper series, and enc=
ourages submission of new papers (or proposals for papers) on the HIF appro=
ach.

An important requirement for the HIF to move forward includes testing of th=
e HIF approach through implementation of rewards based on assessed health i=
mpact of new drugs. I would particularly welcome suggestions from ip-health=
 readers about the best ways to conduct such a trial, at ahollis@ucalgary.c=
a.

The EWG Executive Summary is available at
http://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/EB126/B126_6Add1-en.pdf.

Further information on the Health Impact Fund is available at
http://www.healthimpactfund.org

Aidan Hollis
Professor of Economics

University of Calgary, 2500 University Dr NW Calgary AB T2N 1N4 Canada
tel: +1 403 220 5861  fax: +1 403 220 5861
email: ahollis@ucalgary.ca
web: http://econ.ucalgary.ca/hollis.htm

Incentives for Global Health
http://www.healthimpactfund.org