Public Health: Innovation and Intellectual Property Rights: Report of the Commission of Intellectual Property Rights, Innovations and Public Health

Against the background of an ongoing international debate concerning the relationship between intellectual property rights, innovation and public health, in international organizations and more generally among governments and civil society organizations, the World Health Assembly decided in May 2003 to give an independent Commission the task of analyzing this key issue. The World Health Organization considered that its mission demanded it should play a part in this debate, with the objective of illuminating how intellectual property rights might affect public health. There was the need for governments in the north and south, pharmaceutical companies, scientists and other stakeholders, to consider how diseases which disproportionately affect developing countries could best be addressed, and to seek solutions. Our terms of reference made it clear that the focus of our enquiry should be the development of new diagnostics, vaccines and medicines to treat these diseases. But we quickly concluded that innovation was pointless in the absence of favourable conditions for poor people in developing countries to access existing, as well as new, products. The price of medicines is an important factor in determining access, but so also are poverty and the lack of infrastructure for delivering health care to poor people. It is not just neglected diseases, but rather neglected people, that should be our main concern. The international debate has strengthened awareness and produced some very positive effects. Many stakeholders have responded to the challenge of promoting more research and development (R&D) relevant to the needs of developing countries. New partnerships have been formed, and initiatives taken, to create new products for developing countries, and to promote their delivery.