Dec 9, 2009 Wikileaks documents related to the WHO EWG

On December 9, 2009, Wikileaks posted five sensitive documents related to the WHO Expert Working Group (EWG) on R&D Financing:

  • a non-public draft report of the WHO EWG
  • a non-public Comparative Analysis done by the EWG
  • the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA) Overview of the EWG Comparative Analysis
  • an IFPMA summary slide on the EWG Draft Report
  • an internal IFPMA email, dated December 1, to its Public Health Advocacy Committee (PHAC) on the status of the EWG process
  • Wikileaks has been indefinitely suspended due to funding constraints, as this message on the website indicates:

    To concentrate on raising the funds necessary to keep us alive into 2010, we have reluctantly suspended all other operations, until at least Jan 18.

    Because the documents are no longer available on the Wikileaks website, I am posting them here along with the original text of the story which was obtained from the Google cached page (original URL is here):

    Big Pharma inside the WHO: confidential analysis of unreleased WHO Expert Working Group draft reports, 8 Dec 2009

    From Wikileaks

    Released December 9, 2009

    Summary

    This is a confidential pharmaceutical industry trade association dossier about the WHO Expert Working Group (EWG) on R&D Financing.

    The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA; “Big Pharma”) gave its members 4 documents: a non-public draft report of the WHO EWG and a non-public Comparative Analysis done by the working group, the IFPMA Overview of the EWG Comparative Analysis, and IFPMA summary slide on the EWG Draft Report.

    The compilation of documents shows the influence of “Big Pharma” on the policy making decisions of the WHO, the UN body safeguarding public health. These confidential documents were obtained by the drug industry before their public release to WHO member states (scheduled to be released May 2010). The document also illustrates that the WHO expert group was highly responsive to industry lobbying — a result that public health groups had feared since early 2009, when the expert group met with the industry, but refused to meet with public health groups known to be industry critics.

    The likely audience for these documents include countries, public health policy makers, civil society, industry, academia, media, patients and the general public.

    Journalists can contact Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General of WHO: chanm@who.int and Malebona Precious Matsoso, WHO Director, Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property: matsosom@who.int
    According to our source, the English version of the final report of the EWG with its recommendations is expected to be released to member state countries this week.

    Contents

    * ewg-comparative-analysis-11-12-09.pdf
    * ewg-report-draft-20-11-09.pdf
    * ifpma-ewg-final-report-draft.pdf
    * ifpma-ewg-internal-mail.pdf
    * ifpma-ewg-overview-comparative-analysis.pdf

    Uncategorized