PHA-Exchange> FW: R&D Appeal calls governments to boost innovation for neglected diseases

Tue Jul 19 08:13:48 PDT 2005

Dear Colleagues,

I am forwarding you a sign-on statement circulated by MSF regarding the DNDI
appeal to governments for research and development on neglected diseases.

If your organization would like to sign-on, please send an email to
www.researchappeal.org

Best wishes,

Davinia

Davinia Ovett
Programme Officer
3D -> Trade - Human Rights - Equitable Economy
15, Rue des Savoises
CH-1205 Genève
Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 320 21 21
Fax: +41 22 320 69 48
Email: dovett at 3dthree.org
Website: www.3dthree.org

-----Original Message-----
From: Seco Gerard [mailto:Seco.Gerard at msf.org] 
Sent: 19 July 2005 10:48
To: European Trade Network

Apologies for X-posting.
Sign up now, and forward to others.
Thanks!

Seco
------------------------------------------------
R&D Appeal calls governments to boost innovation for neglected diseases
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sign up NOW to urge governments to support R&D for neglected diseases
on www.researchappeal.org

DNDi and its Founding Partners*, have launched a call to governments to
boost innovation for neglected diseases, in association with Oxfam GB, and
the BIOS Initiative Australia. (Text of the appeal below). Government
leadership is urgently needed to set global public health priorities, fund
the R&D gaps, and stimulate R&D for neglected diseases.

Too many people die from lack of drugs for diseases such as AIDS, malaria,
TB, as well as the most neglected diseases like sleeping sickness, Chagas
disease and kala azar. They die needlessly. The profit-driven model cannot
or will not develop new, improved drugs for them. Who will? Scientific
knowledge exists to develop new treatments, but the political will does not.
How long can we rely on generous philanthropic efforts to support R&D
projects?  DNDi urges governments to act now.

The R&D appeal marks the start of a year long campaign to collect signatures
to present to member states at the WHA in 2006. Eighteen Nobel laureates and
numerous scientists, physicians and policy makers have already put their
name to the appeal.

We urge you to sign up at www.researchappeal.org and please forward to
others to sign.

Your support is critical to the lives of millions suffering from neglected
diseases.

APPEAL TEXT:

<BOOSTING INNOVATION FOR NEGLECTED DISEASES>

Call to governments to provide significant and sustained support to bring
essential new drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics to people suffering and dying
from neglected diseases
* Every day over 35,000 people die from infectious diseases such as AIDS,
malaria, tuberculosis, and most neglected diseases such as leishmaniasis,
Chagas disease and sleeping sickness.

* These diseases affect hundreds of millions, yet we lack safe, affordable,
effective, field-adapted vaccines, diagnostics, and drugs to tackle them.

* Between 1986 and 2001, global funding for health research rose from $30
billion to US$106 billion, but progress towards new health tools for the
poor remains insignificant.

* Of 1,393 new medicines approved between 1975 and 1999, only 1% was
developed for tropical diseases and tuberculosis.

* Basic science about infectious diseases exists and biomedicine is
developing extremely fast, but without political determination this progress
cannot be used to develop essential products.

* The profit-driven model of drug development is not suited to developing
essential health tools for neglected diseases.

* Current regulatory practices are poorly adapted to assessing the
therapeutic advances of new drugs, vaccines and diagnostics for neglected
diseases.

* Higher levels of intellectual property protection have not resulted in
increased drug R&D for global health needs.

In the last few years, this health challenge has spurred global awareness
and some commitment from the international community. A number of developing
countries have been strengthening their capacity for new health
technologies, and their role will be increasingly critical. Not-for-profit
entities have been established to accelerate innovation for neglected
diseases. They are beginning to build a pipeline of projects in response to
the real needs of neglected patients. These product development partnerships
act as "virtual" laboratories, working collaboratively with public research
institutes, universities, and pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.
However, the majority of these entities are mainly funded by philanthropic
organisations and individual donors. The response remains insufficient with
only marginal involvement by wealthier governments.

There is an urgent need to correct the fatal imbalance of the current drug
development model. Governments must take responsibility for global public
health.

New models and financial mechanisms must be pursued. Determined policy
action is needed to direct health-needs driven R&D and harness collaborative
R&D initiatives. This will ensure that initial progress is translated into
improved, affordable and field-adapted drugs and diagnostics that can reach
patients most in need.

We urge governments to provide

* Political leadership - Make global health and medicines a strategic sector
and set R&D priorities according to the needs of patients. Only then can the
world achieve the Millennium Development Goals that envision - among other
things - significant progress in combating HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria
and other neglected diseases.

* Sustained financial support - Governments rich and poor, as well as
inter-governmental organisations should provide, on a sustainable basis, US$
3 billion a year needed to reach an appropriate level of health research for
diseases of the poor. To secure long term success new funding mechanisms
should be designed.

* New rules to stimulate essential health R&D - Redirecting today's
knowledge and scientific expertise to neglected needs will mean a
substantial shift in the way essential health products are valued, financed
and made available.  A new enabling framework should include access to
knowledge, chemical compounds, and research tools protected by intellectual
property rights. Technology transfer and research capacity strengthening in
disease-endemic countries should be at the heart of the endeavour. In
addition, regulatory approval processes must be streamlined in order to
rapidly deliver essential medicines to patients. The risks and benefits of
each drug or vaccine must be assessed in relation to the needs of patients,
the severity of the disease, and available treatments and vaccines.

Without bold, new steps, disease will continue to ravage the developing
world, with global consequences. Governments should act NOW.

Initial Signatories

Appeal Partners
* Nirmal K. Ganguly ( Indian Council of Medical Research, India);
* Rowan Gillies (President, Médecins Sans Frontières International);
* Richard Jefferson (Director, BIOS Initiative , Australia);
* Davy Koech (Director, Kenya Medical Research Institute , Kenya);
* Philippe Kourilsky (Director General, Institut Pasteur , France);
* Ismail Merican (Director General, Ministry of Health, Malaysia );
*  Paulo Buss (President, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation , Brazil)
* Barbara Stocking (Director, Oxfam GB)

Nobel Laureates
* Pierre-Gilles de Gennes ( Physics 1991);
* Shirin Ebadi ( Peace 2003);
* Adolfo Perez Esquivel ( Peace 1980);
* Dario Fo ( Literature 1997);
* Nadine Gordimer ( Literature 1991);
* Roger Guillemin (Physiology or Medicine 1977);
* José Ramos Horta ( Peace 1996);
* Mairead Corrigan Maguire ( Peace 1976);
* Médecins sans Frontières ( Peace 1999);
* Rigoberta Menchú Tum ( Peace 1992);
* Sir Paul M. Nurse (Physiology or Medicine 2001);
* Sir John E. Sulston ( Physiology or Medicine 2002);
* Desmond Tutu ( Peace 1984);
* Betty Williams ( Peace 1976);
* Jody Williams ( Peace 1997)
* Gunter Grass (Literature 1999)
* Stanley B. Prusiner  (Physiology or Medicine 1997)
* Prof. Rolf.M. Zinkernagel (Physiology or Medicine 1996)

Scientists and Physicians
* Kirana Bhatt (Department of Medicine, University of Nairobi, Kenya);
* Leigh Bissett (British Medical Association, UK);
* Pierre-Etienne Bost (Deputy Director, Institut Pasteur, France);
* Yves Champey (Chair, DNDi Board of Directors, France);
* Simon Croft (R&D Director, DNDi, Switzerland);
* Alan Fenwick OBE (Chair of Tropical Parasitology and Director
Schistosomiasis Control Initiative, Imperial College London, UK);
* Peter Folb (Medical Research Council, South Africa);
* Silvio Garattini (Director, The Mario Negri Institute of Pharmacological
Research, Italy);
* Lalit Kant (Deputy Director General, Indian Council of Medical Research,
India);
* Helen Lee (Chief of the Diagnostic Development Unit, University of
Cambridge, UK);
* Stephen Maurer (Goldman School of Public Policy, Berkeley University,
USA - Tropical Disease Initiative);
* Carlos Morel ( Scientific Coordinator , Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Brazil);
* Visweswaran Navaratnam (Clinical Pharmacologist, University of Science,
Malaysia);
* James Orbinski (Munk Centre for International Studies, University of
Toronto, Canada);
* Bernard Pécoul (Executive Director, DNDi, Switzerland);
* Bennett Shapiro (former EVP and Head of Research, Merck & Company, USA);
* Richard Smith (Board member, Public Library of Science and former editor
BMJ, USA);
* C. P. Thakur (Former Union Minister, Ministry of Health and Family,
India);
* Julio Urbina (IVIC - Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research,
Venezuela);
* Nick White (The Wellcome Trust Mahidol University Oxford Tropical Medicine
Research Programme, Thailand);
* Dyann Wirth (Harvard School of Public Health, USA) ;
* Yongyuth Yuthavong (Senior Researcher, NSTDA-National Science & Technology
Development Agency, Thailand)
* Nubia Boechat (Director of far Manguinhos, Brazil)
* Paul L Herrling (Head of Corporate Research, Novartis)

Others
* Giovanni Berlinguer (Member of the European Parliament -MEP-, Committee on
Public Health);
* John Bowis (MEP, Rapporteur on neglected diseases);
* Dorette Corbey (MEP));
* Eduardo Galeano ( Uruguayan journalist, essayist and writer);
* Thomas Gebauer (Executive Director, Medico International);
* Paul Hunt (UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to the highest attainable
standard of health );
* Glenys Kinnock (MEP);
* Stephen Lewis (UN Secretary General's Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa
* Ney Matogrosso ( Brazilian singer and songwriter);
* Luisa Morgantini (MEP, President of the Development Committee);
* Mary Robinson (former President of Ireland, former High Commissioner for
Human Rights - Executive Director, The Ethical Globalisation Initiative ) ;
* Viviane Senna (President, Ayrton Senna Institute),
* Susannah Sirkin (Deputy Director, Physicians for Human Rights);
* Ismael Serageldin (President MURS International);
* Carl Schlyter (MEP, Co-chair of the Economic Committee of ACP-EU
Parliamentary Assembly);
* Walter Veltroni ( Mayor of Rome and 2004 World Mayors finalist for Europe

*Kenya Medical Research Institute, Indian Council for Medical Research,
Oswaldo Cruz Foundation Brazil, Malaysian Ministry of Health; Institut
Pasteur; Médecins Sans Frontières.

Jaya Banerji
Communications Manager
Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative
1 Place St Gervais
1201 Geneva, Switzerland

Tel: +41 22 906 9230/34 (direct)
Fax: +41 22 906 9231
jbanerji at dndi.org
www.dndi.org
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