Geneva, 28 Monday April — Time is of the essence – as the final meeting of a two year process to overhaul medical research and development opens in Geneva today, there is a lot at stake. At the heart of the problem is a broken system of medical R&D which largely disregards the health needs of millions of people in developing countries. Representatives of more than 150 countries have until the end of the week to come up with a new strategy and plan of action to make sure that changes.
The clock is ticking for the Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property (IGWG). Will governments kick the awkward questions about the link between the cost of R&D and the price of drugs into the sidelines? Will they shy away from pushing for much-needed new mechanisms – other than patent monopolies - to stimulate health research?
Most promising is the Bolivia and Barbados proposal for six pilot projects for prize funds – including one for a tuberculosis rapid diagnostic test.
Outside of the meeting, meanwhile, an interesting column in the Financial Times has slammed those who believe ‘patents are not a policy, they are a religion’, who threaten to derail ‘WHO’s commendable search for alternatives’. Click here to link to the FT article.
And Nobel laureates Joseph Stiglitz and Sir John Sulston have released a statement supporting the IGWG alternative mechanisms discussion ‘that seek to correct the deficiencies of the current system’. Click here to read the statement.