Essential Medicines News

Short article on reforms to be discussed at the World Health Organization’s Intergovermental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property regarding the current IP framework.

The main proposal is James Love’s “R&D Treaty” where member countries agree to spend a percentage of their Gross Domestic Product on medical research, including that of neglected diseases. The treaty would also promote open access to research findings, and includes a proposal for a medical prize fund. Love is director of the Consumer Project on Technology in Washington, D.C. Opponents, including the pharmaceutical industry, call the proposal “anticapitalist,” say the prize fund “would never work,” and argue the treaty would require “complicated international bureaucracy”.

The working group’s final report is due to the World Health Assembly in May 2008. Some speculate the report will avoid sensitive subjects, such as patent rights, and instead will focus on ways to implement the less controversial suggestions issued in April by its predecessor, the WHO’s Commission on Public Health, Innovation, and Intellectual Property Rights.