PHA-Exchange> IP-Watch on CIPIH and R&D resolutions

Sat May 27 01:02:11 PDT 2006

http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=318&res=1024_ff&print=0

Agreement Reached On IP And Public Health Resolution At WHO
27/5/2006
Tove Iren S. Gerhardsen @ 12:41 am

A technical group at the World Health Assembly today agreed on a
resolution that will increase the worldwide research and development
focus on diseases that disproportionately affect developing
countries. Brazil and Kenya, which have been driving the issue,
welcomed the resolution, which is expected to be adopted tomorrow, 27
May.

The text of the resolution is not yet available but will be
distributed at the meeting on 27 May by the World Health Organization
(WHO), the chair of the group, Gaudenz Silberschmidt of the Swiss
Federal Office of Public Health, told Intellectual Property Watch.

He said it is “a text without a single square bracket,” leading him
to conclude that, “we got the results.” He declined to comment
further on the content.

The original resolution draft was presented on 25 May by the chair
and merges two key IP resolutions that have been forwarded to the
Health Assembly: One a proposal by Brazil and Kenya for a global
framework on essential health research and development (EB117 R13)
and another resolution based on a report published by a WHO
Commission on Intellectual Property, Innovation and Public Health
(CIPIH) (IPW, Public Health, 3 April 2006). That resolution would
have established a working group to develop a global strategy and
plan of action.

The revised draft resolution from 26 May called for the establishment
of an “intergovernmental working group open to all interested members
states to develop a global strategy and plan of action to provide a
medium-term framework [to implement/based on] the recommendations of
the [CIPIH] commission [taking into consideration WHO’s comparative
advantage].”

Some have questioned the need for references to both a strategy and a
plan. But others said that a strategy is needed in order to develop a
plan.

“It’s very good, we are very happy,” a Brazilian official said,
adding that the resolution focuses on research and development. One
issue that had been debated was whether it should refer to diseases
in general, neglected diseases or something broader such as “health
problems,” which was in discussion earlier in the day, sources said.

But the Brazilian official said they had settled for “diseases that
disproportionately affect developing countries,” which reflects the
CIPIH report.

Another contentious issue in the draft resolution were references to
flexibilities as stated in the World Trade Organization Agreement on
Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). In the
revised draft resolution from 26 May, member states are urged to,
“[encourage that bilateral trade agreements take into account the
flexibilities contained in the WTO TRIPS Agreement and recognized by
the Doha Ministerial Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public
Health.]”

Some participants said that on the request of the European Commission
the word “bilateral” had been dropped in the agreed-to text.

A Kenyan official told Intellectual Property Watch that the
resolution is “a good beginning for a lot of work that is going to
come in the future.” He welcomed the fact that with the resolution
they have managed to draw attention to the health problems in
developing countries.

The official said that the United States had taken most issue with
reference to patents and intellectual property rights in general in
the draft, but all of the references to TRIPS that were in the 26 May
draft appear to be still in the final version. “Not a single
paragraph has been deleted,” the Kenyan official said.

An official from a developed country said that there had been a good
spirit among the negotiators and that the Brazilians had even
referred to the language in the draft resolution as “beautiful wording.”

Commenting on the resolution some hours before it was agreed to,
Matti Rajala of the European Commission Health and Consumer
Protection Directorate told Intellectual Property Watch that as
always the resolution was likely to be a compromise and he was sure
there would be some non-governmental organisations that would be
“extremely disappointed.” He also believed it was a good idea not to
mention “neglected diseases” as there is no document defining what
constitutes a neglected disease.

What’s In and What’s out

The proposed draft resolution that the chair drafted on 25 May
contained an annex with language from the respective resolutions that
was taken out when they were combined. The annex did not appear in
the 26 May version.

Participants said some language was removed due to overlaps from
combining the two draft resolutions. A comparison of the resolutions
shows duplicate references to the setting up of an intergovernmental
committee, and the link between intellectual property, high prices
and access. There also was some overlap in references to TRIPS
flexibilities, although the 26 May draft focused on preserving these
flexibilities in bilateral trade deals and not in general as some of
the deleted language did.

Deleted language with no apparent overlap may have been removed
because it was controversial. This might include language
“recognising the importance of making global health and medicines a
strategic sector;” and references to open access to public research
such as the Human Genome Project and open access models in general.
It might also include references to the public domain (“proper
balance between intellectual property rights and the public domain”),
and to the public interest (“imperative to reconcile the public
interest in accessing the products and derived from new knowledge
with the public interest in stimulating invention”), a global appeal
from 2,500 scientists, and the importance of the WHO’s regional
committees to include the CIPIH report in their agendas.

Trade and Health Resolution Stumbles

Followers of intellectual property-related issues at the assembly
listened diligently through the delayed agenda today waiting for the
discussion of another IP resolution: International trade and health
(EB117 R5).

This resolution suggests that there should be greater collaboration
and correlation between trade and health ministers and their
respective work at the national level.

This resolution was unanimously adopted at the WHO Executive Board
meeting in January and a number of delegations, including many
developing countries, voiced their support for the resolution today
as well. There were, however a few suggestions to add new language
and as the United States said it did not have the mandate to agree on
the suggestions without consulting its capital, the secretariat said
that a new document incorporating the changes would be distributed on
27 May.

Among the changes was a proposal from Turkey to include language on
“taking special problems of transition countries into consideration.”
Venezuela and India also suggested changes. One suggested change was
to create an intergovernmental group for trade and health, sources said.

The US supported the resolution but said that the WHO should advise
member states on trade in an “unbiased and evidence-based” manner,
and clear it with the WTO and the World Intellectual Property
Organization.

There were also some heated exchanges between Cuba and the United
States, with Cuba blaming the United States’ trade embargo for health
problems such as lack of access to medicines in Cuba. The US
representative took issue with the “outrageous attack” made by Cuba,
calling them unfortunate and saying that the claims had nothing to do
with the debate on public health and were “totally, totally
unacceptable by my government.”

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. All of the
news articles and features on Intellectual Property Watch are also
subject to a Creative Commons License which makes them available for
widescale, free, non-commercial reproduction and translation.

Tove Iren S. Gerhardsen, the author of this post, may be reached at
tgerhardsen at ip-watch.ch.
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