According to Thiru Balasubramaniam, the WHA has now adopted a resolution on the WHO’s Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG) on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property. We are waiting for the official text. However, it seemed better than many had predicted earlier this week. The U.S., while not blocking the resolution, noted it did not join the consensus on the text. Now attentions will turn to the WHO’s next move, which will be the July draft of the global strategy and plan of action.
The paragraph on R&D measures appears to be as follows:
(4) to encourage the development of proposals for health-needs driven research and development for discussion at the Intergovernmental Working Group that includes a range of incentive mechanisms, also addressing the linkage between paying for the cost of R&D and the prices of medicines, vaccines, dx tools and other health care products, and a method for tailoring the optimal mix of incentives to a particular condition or product, with the objective of addressing diseases that disproportionately affect developing countries;
The final text include an amendment by Switzerland, essentially replacing the word “separate” with “linkage,” in order to remove an objection from Japan.
This is a substantial step forward, to a new paradigm for supporting R&D, that is consistent with access.