PHM-Exch> Request for Sign on : Letter to the 66th World Health Assembly on CEWG

[Gopa Kumar]

Dear All,

Please fid below a a joint sign on letter requesting WHO Member States to
amend the current resolution on Follow-up of the report of the CEWG (
http://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/WHA66/A66_23-en.pdf). This proposed
resolution waters down the major recommendation of CEWG to
initiate intergovernmental negotiations  for a binding global instrument
for R&D
and innovation for health”.

We request you to join our efforts to advocate amendment to the draft
resolution, which will be discussed in the upcoming World health assembly ,
which will start from 20-28 May 2013. Hence we request you all to sign on
this letter.

Please send in your signatures to Mr. Thiru Balasubramaniam of KEI
thiru at keionline.org


Regards
Gopakumar
Legal Advisor
Third World Network (TWN)


Joint Letter to the 66th World Health Assembly: Follow-up of the report of
the CEWG

Distinguished Delegate,

We urge the World Health Organization (WHO) and its Member States to
exercise leadership, ambition and innovative thinking in developing new
paradigms to take forward the work of the Consultative Expert Working Group
on Research and Development: Financing and Coordination (CEWG) in
reconciling the objectives of stimulating medical innovation and ensuring
access for all.

At the open-ended meeting (26-28 November 2012) on the follow-up of the
report of the CEWG, an outcome document containing a draft report and draft
resolution was produced. This meeting was convened to provide Member States
with the opportunity to develop a work plan for taking forward the
recommendations of the CEWG report. This report was part of the
implementation of the
WHO’s Global Strategy and Plan of Action on Public Health, Innovation and
Intellectual Property (GSPOA). The objective of the GSPOA is to secure “an
enhanced and sustainable basis for needsdriven, essential health research
and development relevant to diseases that disproportionately affect
developing countries”. The CEWG identified the concept of de-linkage as the
over-arching principle in which to secure this objective by de-coupling the
cost of R&D from the price of health technologies including medicines,
vaccines and diagnostic tools. The central recommendation of the CEWG
report that Member States were asked to consider was the development of a
legally binding
global convention to address the unmet R&D needs of developing countries.

Such a global framework is needed to establish a process for identifying
R&D needs, setting priorities, monitoring R&D flows, coordinating R&D
efforts, securing sustainable financing, promoting new incentives and
managing research outputs in a way that ensures both innovation and access.
Given the WHO’s role as the directing and co-ordinating authority in global
public health and
its constitutional mandate, it is uniquely placed to be the forum for such
an instrument.

Despite the clear roadmap set out by the Expert Group, the outcome document
produced at the open-ended meeting postpones discussion of an R&D
Convention at the WHO, and does not provide a clear agenda for addressing
these pressing unmet R&D needs. The commitments that are made are unclear
and too limited. For example, the establishment of an R&D Observatory could
be a
positive first step, but only if the scope of its tasks includes the
definition of R&D priorities in consultation with Member States in addition
to simply monitoring what little is currently being done.

Whether this R&D observatory will receive adequate financing to operate
effectively is also an unanswered question.

Similarly, with respect to the demonstration projects referred to in
operative paragraph 4(4) of the draft resolution, more clarity is needed to
provide assurances that these demonstration projects are predicated upon
the principles outlined in the CEWG report, including de-linking the cost
of R&D
from the price of health products. The CEWG has evaluated and recommended
five concrete proposals that best incorporate these principles and we would
expect to see exactly these proposals to be operationalized through these
pilot projects. As with the R&D observatory, these
demonstration projects require adequate financing.

The outcome of the November 2012 open-ended meeting precipitated a rich and
heated discussion at EB132 in which many member states shared our concerns
on content and process in relation to CEWG follow-up. At EB 132, the WHO
Legal Counsel stated, “the WHA remains free to further discuss the
Director-General's report and the draft resolution” thus confirming the
possibility that
WHA66 can provide further amendments to the draft resolution contained in
A66/23. As noted by A66/23, the Board “agreed that the comments made
thereon by Member States would be brought to the attention of the Health
Assembly” and provided in the “summary record of the eleventh meeting
of the Executive Board at its 132nd session, section 2.”2

Against this background, we call upon WHO Member States to provide greater
clarity and detail to ensure that document A66/23 is aligned with the
spirit of the WHO Global Strategy and Plan of Action on Public Health,
Innovation and Intellectual Property. WHO and her Member States need
to exhibit leadership in fulfilling the aim of the Global Strategy which
states:

“The global strategy on public health, innovation and intellectual property
aims to promote new thinking on innovation and access to medicines, as well
as, based on the recommendations of the CIPIH report, provide a medium-term
framework for securing an enhanced and sustainable basis for needs driven
essential health research and development relevant to diseases which
disproportionately affect developing countries, proposing clear objectives
and priorities for R&D, and estimating funding needs in this area.”

Finally, we request WHO Member States to consider the CEWG  recommendations
holistically including the central recommendation of the CEWG report which
recommended to Member States that “formal intergovernmental negotiations
should begin for a binding global instrument for R&D
and innovation for health”.

Health Action International
Knowledge Ecology International
Médecins Sans Frontières- Access Campaign
Oxfam
Peoples’ Health Movement
Third World Network


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1 http://keionline.org/node/1643
2 A66/23, http://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/WHA66/A66_23-en.pdf

--

Thiru Balasubramaniam
Geneva Representative
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)

thiru at keionline.org



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