Call for Action on Cancer Drugs by YP-CDN, KEI, and UAEM at 67th World Health Assembly

At the opening of the 67th World Health Assembly, today the Young Professionals Chronic Disease Network (YP-CDN), Knowledge Ecology International (KEI), and Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) released a briefing, “Cancer medicines are essential in reducing the global burden of non-communicable diseases.”

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KEI proposal for Antibiotics Innovation Funding Mechanism (AIFM), shortlisted for demonstration project by WHO’s EURO region

The WHO is considering potential projects that will demonstrate the feasibility and benefits of open innovation models, delinkage of R&D costs and product prices, and innovative finance mechanisms. The process for selection began at the regional level, as each of six WHO regions was allowed to shortlist four projects that will be considered at a December 3-4, 2013 meeting of experts in Geneva, where the list will be narrowed again, and then considered by the WHO Executive Board in January 2014 and the WHO World Health Assembly in May 2014. Continue Reading

Approval, ownership, market structure, and placement on WHO EML for 100 new cancer NMEs on NCI alpha list

KEI research associate Paul Miano has written the following paper: Cancer: Approval, ownership, market structure, and placement on WHO Model Essential Medicines List, for 100 new molecular entities (NMEs) on the NCI alpha list of cancer drugs and vaccines. KEI Research Note 2011:1,

A full copy of the paper is available in PDF format here.

The following is from the introduction (sans footnotes, which are in the PDF version):

Introduction and Summary

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The baffling WHO EWG analysis of innovation inducement prizes

The World Health Organization (WHO) Executive Board will soon consider the Executive Summary of the Report of the Expert Working Group on Research and Development Financing, a document, formally identified as EB 126/6 Add.1.

In the section of the report on “Funding allocation proposals,” the EWG considers two types of innovation inducement prizes, including

31 (c) milestone prizes; and
31 (d) end-prizes (cash)

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Colombian Submission to the WHO IGWG negotiation favors drug company positions on IP

By resolution WHA 59.24, the WHO’s Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation, and Intellectual Property (IGWG) has the goal of producing a Global Strategy and Plan of Action that will implement the CIPIH report recommendations and “secure an enhanced and sustainable basis for needs-driven, essential health research and development relevant to diseases that disproportionately affect developing countries, proposing cle Continue Reading

2005: Letter of 162 experts asking World Health Organization to evaluate a proposed treaty framework for medical research and development.

The attached is a February 24, 2005 letter signed by 162 experts, asking the World Health Organization to Evaluate New Treaty Framework for Medical Research and Development The proposal for a Medical R&D Treaty (MRDT) was designed as an alternative… Continue Reading

July 6, 2001 letter from DHHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson letter to Ralph Nader Regarding WHO rights to use inventions funded by the NIH

July 6, 2001 Mr. Ralph Nader P.O. Box 19312 Washington, D.C. 20036 Dear Mr. Nader: I am writing in response to the letter from you and your colleagues requesting that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) grant the… Continue Reading