The WHA will take up the WHA IGWG resolution at 9AM on Friday.
When discussing the issue of excluding the WHO from discussions about a medical R&D treaty, one PhRMA lobbyist told me “this was put to bed long ago.” He was in part referring to a WHO “green room” meeting that was organized before the Obama inauguration. One negotiator said the pharmaceutical companies are pressing hard to kill the medical R&D treaty here “before the new people take over.”
The US delegation is carrying out a plan created in close cooperation with PhRMA and IFPMA, when Bush was president. So far, the Obama people have just been executing the Bush plan, using the same negotiators that were here the past several years.
I’m not familiar with other cases where the WHO is effectively given a “negative mandate” on an issue. I’m also not sure why Dr. Chan is so anxious to be taken out of any discussions about a medical R&D treaty. The issue is an embarrassing example of pharmaceutical company power at the WHO. However, it is not really over just yet.