Knowledge Ecology International

At the end of a dramatic debate that began yesterday, the Executive Board (EB) of the World Health Organization (WHO) agreed to hold a special consultation on the report of the WHO Expert Working Group (EWG) on R&D Financing. A face-to-face meeting will be held on May 13, a few days before the 63rd WHA begins on 17 May. There will also be opportunities for web submissions on the EWG report. In addition, Dr. Continue Reading →

On Monday, 18 January 2010, Brazil delivered the following statement to the 126th session of the Executive Board of the World Health Organization (WHO) under agenda item 4.3 “public health, innovation and intellectual property”. In her intervention, the delegate of Brazil stressed,

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As the 126th session of the Executive Board (EB) of the World Health Organization unfolds today, it appears that the EB will consider agenda item 4.3 on Public health, innovation and intellectual property: Global strategy and plan of action. Under scrutiny will be the work of the Expert Working Group on research and development financing which is mandated by resolution WHA61.21

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The following is a letter sent by Cecilia López Montaño, a member of the WHO Expert Working Group on R&D Financing to the WHO Executive Board:

At the proverbial 11th hour today, the World Health Organization published the final report of the “World Health Organization Expert Working Group on Research and Development Financing” in English three days before the commencement of the 126th session of the WHO Executive Board on January 18, 2010. At this juncture, it does not appear that the WHO Secretariat has made available official versions of this Report in Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish for Member States’ consideration.

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The World Health Organization’s Expert Working Group on R&D Financing spent scant attention on how to raise money, but showed considerable interest in how to spend it. The clear favorite approach is to give grants to product development partnerships — the approach that has now become the most conventional approach, and one not surprisingly endorsed by the PDPs themselves, and also by the Gates Foundation and the IFPMA — two groups that are often seen as devoted to protecting the status quo in terms of intellectual property and business models for innovation.

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Some surprising taxes, and evidence of IFPMA lobbying

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On January 11, 2010, the Washington office of Google hosted a deb Continue Reading →

New documents have been published on the WHO website in relation to the third meeting of the WHO Expert Working Group on R&D Financing that took place from November 30 to December 2, 2009. These six documents are available at:

http://www.who.int/phi/ewg3rdmeet/en/index.html

The first document is: Comparative Review of Innovative Financing Proposals for Health R&D

The second document is: Coordinating Arrangements for R&D [doc 352kb]

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