At its eighth executive board meeting in Geneva on 2 and 3 July, market-oriented drug purchasing mechanism UNITAID agreed to the principle of establishing a patent pool - that is, a collection of intellectual property assets with the consent of their rights holders, for easier licensing to third party manufacture or researchers. This “landmark” decision for drug financing in poor and underserved areas agrees on the usefulness of sharing intellectual property rights to lower costs and increase quality of needed medicines.
Health equity in economic and trade policies
Patent pooling is next step For innovative drug purchasing agency
Mara K: Intellectual Property Watch, 9 July 2008
Debt relief as if justiced mattered
Mandel S: New Economics Foundation, 2008
This report is the last in a series from NEF designed to stimulate progress towards a comprehensive and fair treatment of the crisis of sovereign debt. With the end of an unprecedented period of low interest rates now in sight, such a goal is needed more than ever. Debt relief isn’t working. Current approaches (HIPC and MDRI for poor countries and Paris and London Club renegotiations for middle-income countries) are not solving the problems of Third World indebtedness. HIPC and MDRI are indeed reducing debt burdens, but for a small range of countries, and at a high cost in terms of loss of policy space and after long delays, but non-HIPC poor countries also have major debt problems. Middle-income countries’ indebtedness continues to grow. There is a clear need for a new approach to resolving sovereign debt problems that is comprehensive, systematic, fair and transparent and above all, just. Responses from the creditors so far to criticisms such as those in the previous paragraph have been grossly inadequate. There is as yet no consensus about the way forward. This report aims to stimulate debate and help find a just solution to the debt crisis.
IMF 'can't bail out crisis countries'
King M: Bank of England, 20th Anniversary of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, 29 May 2008
The International Monetary Fund no longer has the financial clout to fulfil its traditional role of lending out money to save crisis-stricken countries, according to a Bank of England report. In all cases the analysis suggests the present IMF lending framework may no longer be appropriate. The working paper is unique because most critics of the Fund have instead focused on the shortcomings of its management structure or economic analysis. It said that the Fund "is increasingly unlikely to provide financing on a sufficiently large scale to meet the demands of higher-risk members." The IEO report also urged the Fund to overhaul its governance structure, much of which is largely unchanged since the 1940s. Among its recommendations was a call to reform the selection process for managing director.
IMF approves new poverty reduction plan for Zambia
People’s Daily Online, 5 June 2008
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved a three-year, US$79-million plan to support Zambia's efforts to alleviate poverty and sustain economic growth. The new Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) plan succeeds a previous arrangement successfully completed last year, the IMF said in a press release. The new PRGF arrangement will support the government's objectives of boosting economic growth and enhancing employment and income opportunities, especially for the poor, while maintaining macroeconomic stability. The PRGF is the IMF's concessional facility for low-income countries. PRGF loans carry an annual interest rate of 0.5 percent and are repayable over 10 years with a five-and-a-half-year grace period on principal payments.
Strengthening international health co-operation in Africa through the regional economic communities
Agu V, Correia AN, Behbehani L: African Journal of Health Sciences 14(3-4):104-113, 2007
The Regional Economic Communities (RECs) are the pillars of the African Union (AU), and have been recognised by the AU as the key vehicles for economic integration and cooperation in Africa. The 2003 Session of the AU Conference of African Ministers of Health (CAMH) considered and adopted, inter alia, recommendations on a proposal to establish Health and Social Affairs Desks within the RECs. The 2003 Maputo Session of the Assembly of AU Heads of State and Government duly endorsed the Report of the Ministers and their recommendations. This paper represents an attempt to assess the extent to which the 2003 decision of CAMH has been implemented. The researchers also argue that regional integration and cooperation should not be geared solely towards economic, trade or political purposes but to the social sector as well, and proposes a set of criteria as useful starting points for determining which social (i.e. health) activities can be undertaken at the regional and sub-regional levels.
Corporations Dominate Trade Panels that Set Global Health Policy: Public Health Groups Sue US Government for Fair and Democratic Representation
CPath, 17 May 2008
At a hearing on 16 May 2008 in the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, public health and health professionals will demand that corporate interests be balanced with public interest representation on US Industry Trade Advisory Committees (ITACs) that advise the US Trade Representative (USTR) on trade policies affecting public health. Non-profit and public interest organizations have been systematically denied posts on industry-dominated trade advisory committees that impact the health of millions of people around the world.
Further details: /newsletter/id/33149
Draft global strategy on public health, innovation and intellectual property
World Health Organization, 3 May 2008
The global strategy on public health, innovation and intellectual property aims to promote new thinking on innovation and access to medicines, as well as, provide a medium-term framework for securing an enhanced and sustainable basis for needs driven essential health research and development relevant to diseases which disproportionately affect developing countries, proposing clear objectives and priorities for Research and Development, and estimating funding needs in this area. In resolution WHA59.24 the Health Assembly recognised the growing burden of diseases and conditions that disproportionately affect developing countries, and particularly women and children. Reducing the very high incidence of communicable diseases in those countries is an overriding priority. At the same time, it is important for WHO Member States and the WHO Secretariat to recognise and better address the increasing prevalence of non-communicable diseases in those countries. This document serves as the outcome-document of the agreements made on 3 May 2008.
GATS Negotiations heat up - Human Rights input needed now
THREAD Action Alert, 1 May 2008
This publication, on negotiations about trade in services indicates ways that human rights advocates can get involved to ensure their governments do not sign agreements that could have harmful human rights effects. Access to essential services, including water, education and health care are on the table as representatives at the WTO push for closure to trade talks in the coming months. Advocates must act now to ensure these agreements include full consideration of the potential human rights impacts of new policies. This Action Alert sets out actions and strategies for human rights advocates concerned about the issue.
MPs want Uganda out of EAC-EU trade deal
Kazooba C
Parliamentarians are pressurising Uganda to revoke the interim trade agreement signed between the European Union and the East African Community. The Ugandan MPs claim the partial Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) signed at the close of last year entrenches 'unfair treatment' of the five-member bloc. The Parliamentary Committee on Trade, Industry and Tourism is presently evaluating the significance of the trade relationship with EU, following a petition from over a dozen civil society groups.
Further details: /newsletter/id/33133
The slippery slope of negotiations at the IGWG on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property
Gupta AS, Gopakumar KM
This is a short report on the negotiations at the Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property. Once again, negotiations were considered unsuccessful by the developing countries as developed countries sought to maintain the status quo, which gives them unfair advantages in intellectual property rights. Negotiations were replete with instances of chicanery and doublespeak on the part of most developed countries, led by the United States. The principal thrust of their strategy has been to obstruct any forward looking measure that would promote the basic objectives of the IGWG, objectives that were designed to find real mechanisms that can promote both innovation and access to medicines that are required for the poor in developing countries.
Further details: /newsletter/id/33136