On Monday, 18 May 2009, WHO released document A62/16 Add.3 entitled “Open paragraphs on stakeholders“.
The link for this document is: http://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/A62/A62_16Add3-en.pdf
The cover sheet of this document states:
As a result of informal consultations among Member States in order to reach agreement on the open paragraphs on stakeholders in the plan of action,[Footnote 1: Document A62/16, paragraph 12.] the attached table presents the final proposals for the remaining specific actions.
It would be interesting to know which Member States actively participated in the informal consultations to remove the brackets with respect to the relevant stakeholders requested to implement the ten specific actions. Most of of these actions are drawn from “Element 5:Application and management of intellectual property to contribute to innovation and promote public health”. WHO has been retained as a stakeholder including Element 5.3(a) which calls upon “Governments; WHO; other international intergovernmental organizations; other relevant stakeholders (including international and national research institutions; development partners; charitable foundations; relevant health-related industries; nongovernmental organizations) to
explore and, where appropriate, promote a range of incentive schemes for research
and development including addressing, where appropriate, the de-linkage of the costs of
research and development and the price of health products, for example through the award
of prizes, with the objective of addressing diseases which disproportionately affect
developing countries.
For all but one of the open paragraphs from Element 5, WHO has been retained as a stakeholder.
For element 2.3(c) which calls upon stakeholders to
encourage further exploratory discussions on the utility of possible instruments or
mechanisms for essential health and biomedical R&D, including inter alia, an essentialhealth and biomedical R&D treaty,
the World Health Organization has been removed as a stakeholder. The remaining stakeholders include “Interested governments; other relevant stakeholders (including nongovernmental organizations”. It remains to be seen whether this stakeholder implementation document is a done deal or whether WHO Member States not privy to the informal consultation process will have the opportunity to negotiate further.