E-DRUG: MEPs on the WHO R&D resolution by Kenya-Brazilia
--------------------------------------------------------
[This is related to the upcoming debate in the WHO Assembly about the R&D resolution. WB]
Please find below the letter from members of the European Parliament
addressed to the President of the European Commission and to the EU
Presidency concerning the Kenyan and Brazilian medical R&D Resolution in
view of the World Health Assembly.
---
President Jose Manuel Barroso
of the European Commission
Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel
President of the European Council
Brussels, 18th April 2006
Dear President Schüssel and President Barrosso,
We are writing to ask you to support the resolution on a Global Framework
on essential health research and development (R&D), submitted by the
governments of Kenya and Brazil at the World Health Organization's
Executive Board meeting in January 2006 and which will be debated for
final approval by all Member States at the 59th World Health Assembly to
be held on 22nd-26th May 2006.
The resolution seeks the establishment of a global framework for
supporting essential medical research and development predicated upon the
principle of equitable sharing of the costs of research and development,
and incentives to invest in useful research and development in the areas
of patients' need and public interest. The process to carry this forward
includes the creation, by WHO, of a working group of interested
Member-States that would submit a progress report to the Sixtieth World
Health Assembly (May 2008) and a final report with concrete proposals to
the Executive Board at its 121st session (January 2009). As the lead
global agency on health needs, WHO plays a crucial role in priority
setting and in the development of policy recommendations on how priority
research can, and should, be carried out.
This resolution is a response to growing concern over the inadequacy of
the current global system for supporting innovation in new medicines and
other health technologies, as well as concern about the impact of an
increasing percentage of people without access to essential medicines.
These concerns are very adequately described in the report published on
3rd April 2006 of the WHO Commission on Intellectual Property Innovation
and Public Health (CIPIH).
See
http://www.who.int/intellectualproperty/documents/thereport/en/index.html
We are encouraged by the letter received from Mr Commissioner Kyprianou
dated 17th March, 2006 in which he states that it "is essential to find
ways to ensure that medicines [are]developed not only based on market
considerations" and "to strengthen R&D of new medicines based on public
health needs in the EU". The joint Kenyan Brazilian proposal is an
opportunity to do just this, by calling on WHO and its Member States to
examine new systems and mechanisms to ensure increased and sustainable
funding for medical R&D initiatives that respond to patients' needs.
We therefore ask you as President of the Council and the Commission to
ensure active European support to the proposal made by the Kenya and
Brazil during the World Health Assembly.
Yours sincerely,
John Bowis, MEP Dorette Corbey, MEP Glenys
Kinnock, MEP
Satu Hassi, MEP Umberto Guidoni, MEP
c.c :
Commissioner Markos Kyprianou
DG SanCo
CommissionerJanez Potocknick
DG Research
Commissioner Louis Michel
DG Development
Commissioner Gunter Verheugen
DG Entreprise
Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner
DG Relex
Dr Lee Jong –Wook
Director General, WHO