[Ip-health] Speech of WHO DG Margaret Chan to WIPO Conference: Strengthening multilateral cooperation on intellectual property and public health Address at the World Intellectual Property

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

Director General Margaret will address the WIPO Conference on
intellectual property and public health.  The topic of her address
is:  Strengthening multilateral cooperation on
intellectual property and public health

Geneva, Switzerland, 14 July 2009

The entire speech can be found on this link.  Extracts of her upcoming
speech are reproduced below.

http://www.wipo.int/export/sites/www/meetings/en/2009/ip_gc_ge/presentations/chan.pdf

<SNIP>

This past May, the World Health Assembly adopted a resolution on
Public health, innovation and intellectual property. This was one of
the most difficult, and divisive, issues ever negotiated by WHO and
its Member States. The consensus finally reached, after hours and
hours and years and years of tense negotiations, represents a triumph
for public health.

<SNIP>

Why do I call this a triumph? Let me be frank. Time and time again,
health is a peripheral issue when the policies that shape world
affairs are set. When health policies clash with prospects for
economic gain, economic interests trump health concerns time and time
again.

<SNIP>

R&D can indeed be needs-driven as well as profit-driven. International
agreements that govern the global trading system can indeed be shaped
in ways that favour health needs of the poor.

During the negotiations, some in civil society had a radical proposal:
abolish the current system of intellectual property and patent
protection, and replace it with something inherently more responsive
to health needs and concerns.

As you know, this was not the solution eventually agreed upon.
Instead, many imaginative strategies have been devised to circumvent
the consequences of market failure for neglected populations and
neglected diseases.

<SNIP>

First, public-private partnerships have recently emerged as a
promising way to develop new products for diseases that
disproportionately affect the poor. In the past, the quest for new
products for neglected diseases has usually been opportunistic.
Existing products, often developed for veterinary purposes, were
screened for their potential efficacy in treating human diseases.

As a second example, international mechanisms, such as the Global Fund
to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the GAVI Alliance for
childhood immunization, have demonstrated their capacity to ensure a
steadily growing market demand for medicines and vaccines.

During 2006, these mechanisms were joined by a major innovation:
UNITAID. This drug purchasing facility uses funds from a levy on
airline tickets to purchase quality-assured drugs for the developing
world.

UNITAID has provided an incentive for product improvement, such as the
development of paediatric formulations of TB drugs. Large procurement
volumes have secured substantial price reductions. They have also
motivated manufacturers to increase their production capacity, thus
ensuring uninterrupted supplies of life-saving medicines as health
initiatives continue to
expand their reach.

UNITAID has also launched a patent pool initiative as another strategy
for boosting innovation.


As a final example, WHO operates a pre-qualification programme for
pharmaceutical products, which includes on-site inspections of
manufacturing facilities. By giving products of assured quality a seal
of approval, the system brings uniform quality standards to the
market, introduces order, and increases the base of suppliers.

Equally important, it is helping manufacturing companies in the
developing world become internationally competitive at no sacrifice of
quality, and no compromise of consumer safety. Competition from a
broader base of suppliers is changing the dynamics of the market for
public health vaccines. Supplies are more abundant and reliable, and
healthy, broad-based competition is bringing prices down, sometimes
substantially. As yet another advantage, improving the competencies of
regulatory authorities and of manufacturers is an explicit component
of the programme.

------------------------------------------------------------


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


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