Breakthrough by WHO will give poor countries better access to drugs

May 27 2008

An agreement has been reached by world health leaders regarding approaches to drug research and development and improving access to medicines.

Delegates at an annual meeting of the World Health Organization (WHO) have endorsed policies governing public health, innovation and intellectual property strategies.

The intellectual property issue has been a controversial one for the WHO, with members divided over how and whether to revamp the prevailing patent system, which many believe makes drugs unaffordable to poor nations.

The criticism by developing countries is that pharmaceutical companies invest large sums to create treatments that wealthy consumers will spend money on while deadly diseases that kill, blind and disable millions of impoverished people each year are neglected.

There has also been reluctance from wealthy nations for an overhaul of intellectual property rules, particularly with regard to patents which give companies an exclusive right to sell the drugs they develop for a fixed time at higher prices than generic versions.

But pharmaceutical manufacturers say such protections are critical for the drug industry to continue to invest in research and to operate successfully.

A working group established two years ago by the WHO revealed stark differences in opinion between rich and poor countries and issues such as the fairness of patents blocked consensus in the group.

It is hoped the new policies will help promote drug research and development and enhance the access to new drugs for developing countries and overcome the rich-poor rift over how intellectual property is managed.

The proposed strategies will use innovative methods to encourage research and the development and help developing countries access more life-saving medicines.

The action plan will boost incentives for drug makers to tackle diseases that mainly afflict the poor and WHO Director-General Margaret Chan says the move is a major breakthrough for public health that will benefit many millions of people for many years to come.

At the meeting the main decision-making body of the WHO, the World Health Assembly (WHA), the 2,700 delegates from 190 countries endorsed a six-year-action plan to deal with non-communicable diseases.

The delegates were told that the global burden of disease is expected to shift from infectious diseases such as diarrhoea, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, to non-communicable diseases that would cause 75 per cent of deaths in 2030.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu called also called for concerted action to prevent disease in Africa, saying millions of African children die each year from preventable diseases.

The WHO says research indicates that globally, deaths from cardiovascular diseases are predicted to rise to 23.4 million by 2030, and cancer deaths to 11.8 million in the same period.

A strategy was also agreed upon to curb the harmful use of alcohol.

Public health activists have welcomed and applauded the bitterly fought consensus and say the WHO has engineered a major step forward in tackling intellectual property, which spans patents, copyright and trademarks.

They have called on the WHO to push for new incentives for drug makers to create new diagnostic tests for tuberculosis.