Intellectual property rights: access to existing and new medicines and vaccines.

An independent Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and Public Health formally presented its report to the WHO Director-General, Dr. Lee Jong-wook, recommending key actions needed to ensure that poor people in developing countries have access to existing and new products to diagnose, treat and prevent diseases that affect them most. The report contains more than 50 recommendations that serve as a road map for tackling the issues in different country settings. "We are grateful to the Commissioners for undertaking this difficult task. With this report, the Commission has built a solid foundation from which countries can move forward. I encourage all countries to give serious consideration to their role in addressing these critical issues", Dr. Lee said.

Over half of the people in the poorest parts of Africa and Asia lack regular access to existing essential medicines because they cannot afford them or their country's health system is too weak. Apart from access to existing medicines, some health products, specifically for diseases that disproportionately affect developing countries, are simply not developed at all due to the lack of a sustainable market. The relationship between intellectual property rights, innovation and public health has been at the heart of debate.

The report, titled Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property Rights, is the result of a two-year analysis of how Governments, industry, scientists, international law and financing mechanisms can work best to overcome the challenges. "There is now global momentum to address these issues and we have a unique opportunity to build on this. There is more awareness, more money potentially available, more utilization of scientific capacity in developing countries and new institutions, such as public-private partnerships", said Ruth Dreifuss, Chair of the Commission. The report is clear that we must build on this to ensure that poor people in developing countries have sustainable access to medicines, vaccines and diagnostics they need now, she added. It "maps out the ways this can be done".

The report will be examined by the World Health Assembly during its annual meeting in May 2006, which will ultimately decide how its findings will be applied.