Update on Second Round of Negotiations through IGWG
Negotiations to ensure affordable medicines between Representatives of Ministries of Health and the drug industry in Geneva were suspended after delegates ran out of time. The goal of the second round negotiations, held through the Intergovernmental Working Group for Public Health,Innovation and Intellectual Property (IGWG) in early November is to create a strategy to promote research and development of affordable medicines, while at the same time respecting the intellectual property rights of pharmaceutical companies.
The meeting was suspended after delegates ran out of time after six days of negotiations, and will resume in early 2008.
As reported by MSF, the next steps for this process are as follows
- A report on "progress made so far" to the Executive Board in January 2008 will be done
- An intersessional session will take forward the subdrafting group on the Plan of Action (PoA) , probably 2 to 3 days after the Executive Board meeting in January.
- The secretariat will issue three type of texts (public soon).
- text that reached a consensus in drafting groups
- text that was discussed but still in Brackets
- text of the Global Strategy not yet discussed in drafting groups
To facilitate the next meeting in April, Member States are invited to provide comments on the third text of the Global Strategy that has not been discussed yet, before 31 January 2008. At the beginning of March the Secretariat will release the comments of Member States.
See below to read comments from MSF on the negotiations
MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES/DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS COMMENTS AT THE END OF THE
MEETING:
"What is most encouraging is that governments have decided that business as
usual won't do anymore," said Michel Lotrowska, Campaigner at MSF's Access
to Essential Medicines Campaign. "They are open to exploring entirely new
ways of financing essential health research, in such a way that the fruits
of innovation are accessible to those who need it the most. One example is
the decision to pursue discussions on an essential health and biomedical R&D
treaty."
"We are getting a sense that countries are pushing WHO to be more active in
resolving the access to medicines crisis, and take a pro-health approach to
intellectual property. And governments are taking steps to address the
fundamental reasons why investment into innovation for diseases of the poor
is lacking," said Lotrowska. "As a medical organisation, we need an R&D
system that allows both medical innovation and access."
Media coverage on negotiations
From the Guardian Unlimited