KEI Statement on World Health Assembly resolution on Consultative Expert Working Group on Research and Development: Financing and Coordination
A number of developing countries worked together to push the World Health Assembly to create a member state process to consider the implementation of the CEWG. The most important CEWG recommendations are to begin work on a new WHO Convention on R&D financing, and to de-link R&D costs from drug prices.
The EU has provided KEI with a copy of the EU statement delivered at the 65th World Health Assembly on Wed, May 23, 2012, on the WHO Consultative Expert Working Group on R&D Financing. In a nutshell, the EU position is to “generally support” the US led position, and to slow everything down. Here are some of the main points:
We recognise that current measures are insufficient, although we also cherish the collective efforts that have been made with respect to the issue so far.
This is a brief note regarding the WHA negotiations on the proposed treaty for medical R&D, and in particular, the elements which deal with financing R&D. I’ll skip the history and earlier context of the negotiations, and focus on the main issues in play this week.
On May 23, 2012, the World Health Assembly began discussion of Agenda Item 13.14, the report of the Consultative Expert Working Group (CEWG) on Research and Development Financing and Coordination.
The World Heath Organization is now debating proposal in a report form a Consultative Expert Working Group (CEWG) on R&D for a new medical R&D treaty, focusing on the special health needs of developing countries. The following table shows how much money various regions and countries would be obligated to spend on R&D, under the treaty proposal, which is .0001 of GDP, of which 20 percent would be invested through pooled funding mechanisms.
Senator Sanders has offered an amendment to the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act of 2012 that would require drug sponsors to disclose the costs of pre-clinical research, clinical trials and related R&D, as well as grants, economic incentives that subsidize drug development costs, and also report quarterly sales and revenues, register all clinical trials at www.clinicaltrials.gov, and report detailed descriptions of each clinical trial participant’s results.
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) will convene the 18th session of the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP) from 21 May 2012 to 25 May 2012 (during the same week as the 65th session of the World Health Assembly). The agenda of the SCP is reproduced below.
This was the 3,500 word statement of Senator Bernie Sanders during Senate HELP committee markup of the PDUFA legislation. The statement covers a lot of ground, and illustrates why consumer groups love Bernie Sanders, while making one wonder why other Senators have not been more supportive of the consumer protection issues that Sanders discusses. Here are some highlights:
The proposal for a new extended monopoly for antibiotics and antifungal drugs is a “huge giveaway” that will lead to high prices and harm consumers.
“Roma locuta causa finita est” (Rome has spoken, therefore the case has been decided) was the maxim employed by medieval jurists to describe the absolute irrevocability of papal judgements in canon law. Today, in modern international trade law, the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Appellate Body fulfills a similar function as the international trading system’s “Supreme Court”. In the words of the WTO,
[t]he Appellate Body was established in 1995 under Article 17 of the Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes (DSU). Continue Reading →
The WHO’s Consultative Expert Working Group (CEWG) on R&D proposal for a new WHO Convention on health R&D has been widely praised by public health groups (See https://www.keionline.org/node/1399). The CEWG proposal for a treaty has also, at least so far, avoided much criticism from the pharmaceutical industry, even though it strongly embraces the notion of delinkage of R&D costs from product prices, open innovation, and technology transfer and capacity building in developing countries. Continue Reading →
On May 23, 2012, the World Health Assembly began discussion of Agenda Item 13.14, the report of the Consultative Expert Working Group (CEWG) on Research and Development Financing and Coordination. 