[Random-bits] Text of WHO resolution on "Public health, innovation, essential health research and intellectual property rights: towards a global strategy and plan of action"

Tue May 30 08:04:04 2006

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WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
FIFTY-NINTH WORLD HEALTH ASSEMBLY
Agenda item 11.11
A59/A/Conf.Paper No.8
27 May 2006

Public health, innovation, essential health research and intellectual
property rights: towards a global strategy and plan of action

The Fifty-ninth World Health Assembly,

Recalling resolution WHA56.27, which requested the Director-General to
establish terms of reference for an appropriate time-limited body to
collect data and proposals from the different actors involved and
produce an analysis of intellectual property rights, innovation and
public health;

Further recalling resolutions WHA52.19, WHA53.14, WHA54.10, and =20
WHA57.14;

Having considered the report of the Commission on Intellectual Property
Rights, Innovation and Public Health; fn1

Conscious of the growing burden of diseases and conditions
disproportionately affecting developing countries, particularly those
affecting women and children, including an upsurge in noncommunicable
diseases;

Considering the need to continue to develop safe and affordable new
products [fn2] for such communicable diseases as AIDS, malaria and
tuberculosis, and for other diseases or illnesses disproportionately
affecting developing countries;

Conscious of the opportunities opened up by advances in biomedical
science, and the need to harness them more effectively to develop new
products, particularly in order to meet public health needs in
developing countries;

Aware of the considerable progress that has been made in recent years by
governments, industry, charitable foundations, and nongovernmental
organizations in funding initiatives to develop new products to fight
diseases affecting developing countries, and to increase access to
existing ones;

Recognizing, however, that much more needs to be done in relation to the
scale of avoidable suffering and mortality;

Concerned about the need for appropriate, effective and safe health
tools for patients living in resource-poor settings;

Considering the urgency of developing new products to address emerging
health threats such as multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, and other
infectious diseases of particular relevance to developing countries;

Aware of the need for additional funding for research and development
for new vaccines, diagnostics and pharmaceuticals, including
microbicides, for illnesses, including AIDS, that disproportionately
affect developing countries;

Recognizing the importance of, and need for, public/private partnerships
devoted to the development of new essential drugs and research tools,
and aware of the need for governments to set a needs-based priority
agenda for health, and to provide political support and sustainable
sources of funding for such initiatives;

Recognizing the importance of public and private investment in the
development of new medical technologies;

Considering that a number of developing countries have been
strengthening their research and development capacity in new health
technologies, and that their role will be increasingly critical, and
recognizing the need for continued support for research in and by
developing countries;

Noting that intellectual property rights are an important incentive for
the development of new health-care products;

Noting, however, that this incentive alone does not meet the need for
the development of new products to fight diseases where the potential
paying market is small or uncertain;

Noting that the Doha Ministerial Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and
Public Health confirms that the Agreement does not and should not
prevent Members from taking measures to protect public health;

Further noting that the Declaration, while reiterating commitment to the
Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights
(TRIPS) affirms that the Agreement can and should be interpreted and
implemented in a manner supportive of the rights of WTO Members to
protect public health and, in particular, to promote access to medicines
for all;

Taking into account Article 7 of the TRIPS agreement that states that
=93the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights should
contribute to the promotion of technological innovation and to the
transfer and dissemination of technology, to the mutual advantage of
producers and users of technological knowledge and in a manner conduce
to social and economic welfare, and to a balance of rights and =20
obligations=94;

Stressing that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides that
=93everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of
the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement
and its benefits=94 and that =93everyone has the right to the protection =
of
the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary
or artistic production of which he is the author=94;

Concerned about the impact of high prices of medicines on access to
treatment;

Aware of the need to promote new thinking on the mechanisms that support
innovation;

Recognizing the importance of strengthening capacity of local public
institutions and businesses in developing countries to contribute to,
and participate in, research and development efforts;

Noting that the report of the Commission requests that WHO should
prepare a global plan of action to secure enhanced and sustainable
funding for developing and making accessible products to address
diseases that disproportionately affect developing countries,

1. WELCOMES the report of the Commission on Intellectual Property
Rights, Innovation and Public Health and expresses its appreciation of
the Chair, Vice-Chair and Members of the Commission for their work;

2. URGES Member States: [fn1]

(1) to make global health and medicines a priority sector, to take
determined action to emphasize priorities in research and development
addressed to the needs of patients, especially those in resource-poor
settings, and to harness collaborative research and development
initiatives involving disease-endemic countries;

(2) to consider the recommendations of the report and to contribute
actively to the development of a global strategy and plan of action, and
to take an active part, working with the secretariat and international
partners, in providing support for essential medical research and
development;

(3) to work to ensure that progress in basic science and biomedicine is
translated into improved, safe and affordable health products =96 drugs,
vaccines and diagnostics =96 to respond to all patients=92 and clients=92
needs, especially those living in poverty, taking into account the
critical role of gender, and to ensure that capacity is strengthened to
support rapid delivery of essential medicines to people;

(4) to encourage trade agreements to take into account the flexibilities
contained in the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual
Property Rights and recognized by the Doha Ministerial Declaration on
the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health;

(5) to ensure that the report of the WHO Commission on Intellectual
Property Rights, Innovation and Public Health is included on the agendas
of WHO=92s regional committees in 2006;

3. DECIDES:

(1) to establish, in accordance with Rule 42 of the Rules of Procedure
of the World Health Assembly, an intergovernmental working group open to
all interested Member States to draw up a global strategy and plan of
action in order to provide a medium-term framework based on the
recommendations of the Commission. Such a strategy and plan of action
aims at, inter alia, securing 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;

(2) that regional economic integration organizations constituted by
sovereign States, Members of WHO, to which their Member States have
transferred competence over matters governed by this resolution,
including the competence to enter into international legally binding
regulations, may participate, in accordance with Rule 55 of the Rules of
Procedure of the World Health Assembly, in the work of the
intergovernmental working group referred to under paragraph (1):

(3) that the above-mentioned working group shall report to the Sixtieth
World Health Assembly through the Executive Board on the progress made,
giving particular attention to needs-driven research and other potential
areas for early implementation.

(4) that the working group shall submit the final global strategy and
plan of action to the Sixty-first World Health Assembly through the
Executive Board;

4. REQUESTS the Director-General:

(1) to convene immediately the intergovernmental working group and to
allocate the necessary resources to it;

(2) to invite, as observers at the sessions of the intergovernmental
working group, representatives of non-Member States, of liberation
movements referred to in resolution WHA27.37, of organizations of the
United Nations system, of intergovernmental organizations with which WHO
has established effective relations, and of nongovernmental
organizations in official relations with WHO, who shall attend the
sessions of the working group in accordance with the relevant Rules of
Procedure and resolutions of the Health Assembly;

(3) to invite experts and a limited number of concerned public and
private entities to attend the sessions of the intergovernmental working
group and to provide advice and expertise, as necessary, upon request of
the Chair, taking into account the need to avoid conflicts of interest;

(4) to continue to issue public health-based research and development
reports, identifying from a public health perspective, gaps and needs
related to pharmaceuticals, and to report on them periodically:

(5) to continue to monitor, from a public health perspective, in
consultation as appropriate with other international organizations, the
impact of intellectual property rights and other issues addressed in the
Commission's report, on the development of, and access to, health care
products, and report thereon to the Health Assembly.

fn1. Public health, innovation and intellectual property rights. Report
of the Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and Public
Health. April 2006

fn2. The word =93products=94 hereafter should be understood to include
vaccines, diagnostics and medicines.

fn1. Where applicable, also regional economic integration organizations.

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