[afro-nets] WHO launches intellectual property commission

[Claudio Schuftan <aviva@netnam.vn>]

WHO launches intellectual property commission
---------------------------------------------

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has announced details of a
new commission that aims to analyse how intellectual property
rights affect the creation of new drugs against 'diseases of
poverty' in the developing world.

The Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and
Public Health (CIPIH) will be led by Ruth Dreifuss, former
President of Switzerland. The vice-chair will be R.A. Mashelkar,
director-general of India's Council of Scientific and Industrial
Research.

Leading economists, lawyers, medics, industry representatives
and scientists from across the globe make up the remainder of
the 10-person committee.

The pharmaceutical industry has welcomed the announcement. A
statement from the International Federation of Pharmaceutical
Manufacturers Associations, which represents more than 60 na-
tional industry organisations, says that the Commission is
"soundly positioned to delve into issues of intellectual prop-
erty, its interfaces and linkages with pharmaceutical innovation
and public health".

The Commission, which has been set up at the request of last
year's World Health Assembly, will review existing research, de-
velopment and innovation efforts directed at diseases that af-
fect the poor. It will then consider how effectively intellec-
tual property regimes and other incentive and funding mechanisms
are stimulating research into new medicines against these dis-
eases.

Governments, UN bodies, other international agencies and private
sector and civil-society organisations will be consulted in
drawing up the report, which will be presented to the WHO Execu-
tive Board in January 2005.

Download terms of reference of the Commission as Adobe PDF file
(3 pp. 49 kB) at:
http://www.who.int/gb/EB_WHA/PDF/EB113/eeb113id1.pdf