Public Health
Inadequate healthcare systems and epidemics of serious diseases have placed significant pressure on governments and on industry to take immediate and effective action. The role of the patent system in making medicines available to needy consumers, particularly in poor countries, has been the subject of intense debate.
In this respect, the linkages between intellectual property rights and public health are being addressed in several fora. In April 2006, the WHO's Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and Public Health (CIPIH) issued a report on, among other issues, the importance and effectiveness of intellectual property rights regimes in stimulating research and creation of new medicines for diseases that particularly affect developing countries. For the report please go here.
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In May 2006, at the Fifty-ninth World Health Assembly, WHO Member States established an Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property (IGWG). The Group has met in several meetings to discuss “ways to foster innovation, build capacity and improve access to health products to achieve better health outcomes in developing countries”.
In May 2008 the Sixty-first World Health Assembly adopted Resolution WHA 61.21 “Global strategy and plan of action on public health, innovation and intellectual property”. The strategy aims to “promote new thinking in innovation and access to medicines, which would encourage needs-driven research rather than purely market-driven research to target diseases disproportionately affecting people in developing countries”.
The WTO has also worked to resolve the issue of how the TRIPS agreement can best support public health goals. A decision was taken by WTO members on 6 December 2005 to approve an amendment to the TRIPS Agreement, making permanent the 30 August, 2003 decision by the WTO General Council to remove limitations on exports under compulsory licence to countries that cannot manufacture the pharmaceuticals themselves. This amendment has gone a long way towards resolving the contentious debate relating to the introduction of "cross border" compulsory licensing in the pharmaceutical sector in order to help poor countries obtain access to critical medicines. The amendment is designed to match as closely as possible the waiver introduced by the 2003 decision and its relationship to the statement read out by the General Council Chair in the context of that decision.
The issue of public health and access to medicines calls for a variety of policies, including those unrelated to intellectual property. The business community has an important perspective to contribute to the discussion, having participated in a number of public-private partnerships, as well as in private sector initiatives for supplying needed drugs to developing countries. Business is also providing free or affordable access to biomedical and healthcare information for institutions in low-income countries through public-private initiatives.
The ICC's Task Force on Development is charged with ensuring that the views of ICC members are heard in discussions carried out by the WTO, the WHO and other organizations involved in the public health debate. In particular, the Task Force desires to ensure that questions of interpretation and implementation of the TRIPS Agreement focus on achieving improvements in public health in developing and least-developed countries without eroding the incentives for innovation afforded by intellectual property rights.
The ICC Task Force on Development is co-chaired by:
Peter Dirk Siemsen
Senior Partner
Danneman, Siemsen, Bigler & Ipanema Moreira - Brazil
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Ivan Hjertman European Patent Attorney IP Interface AB - Sweden |
ICC Statements and Contributions
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ICC Statements and Contributions
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WTO's TRIPs and Public Health Gateway
http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/trips_e/ pharmpatent_e.htm
WHO Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property Homepage
http://www.who.int/phi/en/