On 20 February 2011, Dr. Keiji Fukuda, Assistant Director-General - Health Security and Environment, World Health Organization, responded to KEI's letter (16 February 2011) regarding McKinsey, vaccine policy and competing interests. Here is the response in full (email contacts have been redacted).

From: "Fukuda, Keiji"
Date: February 20, 2011 4:14:05 PM GMT+01:00
To: "Thiru Balasubramaniam"

On 15 February 2011, the Co-Chairs of the WHO Open-Ended Working Group of Member States on Pandemic Influenza Preparedness: sharing of influenza viruses and access to vaccines and other benefits (OEWG) held a consultation with civil society. The Co-chairs of the OEWG are Ambassador J. Gomez-Camacho, Mexico and Ambassador B. Angell-Hansen, Norway.

On 4 February 2011, WikiLeaks passed on to the UK newspaper, The Telegraph, a cable dated 1 November 2007 from the US Embassy in London entitled "UK AGREES WITH US APPROACH TO UPCOMING WHO INTERGOVERNMENTAL WORKING GROUP ON PUBLIC HEALTH, INNOVATION, AND IP" signed by "LEBARON".

Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) enjoy a place of prominence on the global public health agenda in 2011. At the 128th WHO EB, the assembly was abuzz with news of a joint Russian and WHO initiative, the "First global ministerial conference on healthy lifestyles and noncommunicable disease control" to be held in Moscow on 28-29 April 2011 and the UN High-level Meeting of the General Assembly on Non-Communicable Diseases in September 2011.

The following is an article by Agathe Duparc which appeared on page four of the Sunday/Monday edition (23 January-24 January 2011) of Le Monde with a reference on the cover page. Below the article are two paragraphs providing readers with more background information on the World Health Assembly and the Executive Board. The third paragraph is the main quote highlighted in the print version. What is missing in this copy below is a cartoon accompanying the piece which shows a bespectacled man with a body of an octopus holding two syringes in a field of dollar signs.

This is a response to an email message posted to a2k and ip-health by Dr. Mary Moran. Among other things, the missive raises the issue of what constitutes a conflict of interest, and also how such conflicts should be managed. Dr. Moran has asked for a response, and this is it.

Dear Dr. Moran,

At the 128th meeting of the WHO Executive Board (EB), the European members of the board are reportedly taking a hard line on the proposal by Switzerland to have Paul Herrling, an executive of Novartis, appointed to the WHO Consultative Expert Working Group (CEWG) on R&D financing. Our earlier blogs on this controversy are available here and here).

On Tuesday's discussion at the 128th Executive Board on the Draft WHO HIV/AIDS strategy 2011–2015, the United States made a strong intervention (delivered by Dr. Nils Daulaire, Director, Office of Global Health Affairs, Department of Health and Human Services) in support of the Medicines Patent Pool drawing attention to the fact that the draft HIV/AIDS strategy while making reference to a more competitive market for ARVs, failed to recognized the importance of the Medicines Patent Pool.

Here below are the remarks of the US on this point:

This note provide additional context for those who are just now following the issue of conflicts of interest and the WHO Consultative Expert Working Group (CEWG) on R&D Financing.

The CEWG follows a controversial, flawed and failed effort by an earlier group, the WHO Expert Working Group (EWG) on R&D Financing, to:

As 2011 unfolds, the following conferences and negotiations are expected to shape the knowledge governance landscape this year at WHO, WIPO and WTO.

World Health Organization

On Friday, 26 November 2010, the 6th session of the WIPO Committee on Development Agenda and Intellectual Property approved a project entitled "Project on Open Collaborative Projects and IP-Based Models". As mentioned in KEI's previous posting on this subject, this project endeavors to implement Recommendation 36 of the Development Agenda which states:

25 November 2010

The fourth day of WIPO's Committee on Development and Intellectual Property(CDIP6) has witnessed a rich discussion on how to implement Recommendation 36 of the WIPO Development Agenda which states:

Recommendation 36 (Cluster D): To exchange experiences on open collaborative projects such as the Human Genome Project as well as on intellectual property models

Knowledge Ecology International made the following intervention today at the 6th Session of the WIPO Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP).

KEI statement to WIPO CDIP 6 on Agenda item 5

Thank you Ambassador and congratulations on your appointment as Chair of this Committee.

The 6th session of the WIPO Advisory Committee on Enforcement is taking place in Geneva from 1-2 December 2010. KEI's observations on the 5th session, entitled, Positive outcome reached at WIPO Advisory Committee on Enforcement while ACTA looms in the East can be found here:http://keionline.org/node/681.