WHO Board Sets Course On IP

IP-Watch
February 4, 2008
By William New

The World Health Organization Executive Board recently addressed several key issues pertaining to intellectual property rights and access to knowledge. This included extensive discussion of pandemic influenza policies, the management of IP and health, and an appeal by WHO Director General Margaret Chan for governments to trust her office’s proposal to require pre-approval of hundreds of publications through the WHO executive office.

The Executive Board set the pace for the annual World Health Assembly in May. The board met from 21 to 26 January. The last meeting of the board was in May 2007, at the time of the assembly.

At the meeting, WHO members took note (without changes) of a secretariat report on a high-profile working group on public health, innovation and intellectual property (IGWG) that is mandated to prepare a draft global strategy and plan of action by the May assembly. The strategy and plan will target “an enhanced and sustainable basis for needs-driven, essential health research and development relevant to diseases that disproportionately affect developing countries,” the WHO said.

The group has been working slowly since 2006, and has come up with a draft strategy and plan, but the latest draft shows many aspects still not agreed. At the executive board meeting, some members raised concern about the slow pace, according to participants.

The second IGWG working group meeting, held 5-10 November (IPW, WHO, 10 November 2007), was suspended and will be resumed on 28 April to 3 May in order to finalise the draft global strategy and plan of action. The full working group will be preceded by a meeting of the “subgroup of drafting group B” from 17-19 March, which will focus on a matrix for the draft plan of action. Comments on the draft submitted by a 31 January deadline will be made available in March, according to the WHO.