Press Releases 2006
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U.S. Statement at Working Group on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property

Opening Statement by David Hohman,
Health Attaché, U.S. Mission
Geneva,
December 4, 2006

 

  • The United States is pleased to join colleagues to begin to explore ways to improve health, particularly the growing burden of diseases and conditions that disproportionately affect developing countries.

  • All of us here today share that goal.  Our challenge is to determine how best to move forward, while avoiding “one-size-fits-all” solutions to varied national and regional contexts. 

  • The recommendations of the Report of the World Health Organization (WHO) Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and Public Health (CIPIH) provide us with much food for thought.  On the whole, my Government was pleased that the Commission worked productively and transparently, and we support many of its recommendations.  We particularly recognize the attention the report gave to the need for developing countries to strengthen national programs for health research.

  • The Commission’s recommendations target many actors – not just the WHO Secretariat.  We must acknowledge this fact at the outset, and focus our work in this meeting in particular on those recommendations that fall within the core competency of the WHO. 

  • All agree there is a critical need for research and development for diseases that disproportionately affect developing countries.  This research must differentiate between disease-specific and cross-cutting initiatives.  A balance between the two is needed, recognizing that disease-specific R&D is essential for the development of specific products, while cross-cutting initiatives enhance the public health impact from such products.

  • We are pleased that the Commission’s report acknowledged the significant contribution the United States makes to biomedical research.  The National Institutes of Health (NIH) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) supports basic and clinical research on a number of parasitic and other diseases that predominately affect developing countries.  Through HHS/NIH, the United States also provides researchers from developing countries unparalleled opportunities to further develop their expert capacity while conducting research with some of the world’s most preeminent scientists. 
  • Scientists from developing countries are then able to bring this knowledge back home to strengthen research capacity and institutions, help create sustainable career development paths for investigators, and generate needed leadership and social capital to support sustained R&D efforts. 

  • Another success story is the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases.   TDR can serve as a model for the IGWG as we discuss ways to develop new approaches and improve existing ones for preventing, diagnosing, treating, and controlling infectious diseases that predominately affect developing countries.  It can also strengthen countries’ capacity to undertake the research required for developing and implementing new and improved disease control approaches.  

  • The public-private partnerships that have emerged in the last decade have transformed the fields of biomedical research and drug development.  Public-private partnerships are a key element of the success of U.S. Government-supported R&D.

  • In the United States, these partnerships involve government, university, NGO and commercial entities that bring their specialized expertise and resources to the partnerships and make research results available for public use.  Some examples of public-private partnerships include the Accelerating Access Initiative to HIV Care, the Action TB Program, and the African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control.  Perhaps the most well-known of these is the Gates Foundation’s Grand Challenges in Global Health, a $200 million program to increase “deliverable technologies” for use in developing countries.

  • The Initiative on Public Private Partnerships for Health reported 92 such partnerships by the end of 2004 – two-thirds (63) of which focused on diseases that disproportionately affect developing countries.

  • Finally, we must begin to tackle seriously the health systems  deficiencies that negatively impact access to the fruits of innovation.  The shortage of qualified nurses and physicians, underdeveloped healthcare systems, tariffs on drugs and devices, and poor distribution and transport systems contribute significantly to  the lack of access to medicines in developing countries.  If innovation and strong public health systems are to be a reality, we must work together to address these and other barriers  in creative and sustainable ways. 

  • Thank you.