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Last, week, the 65th World Health Assembly debated the report on the Consultative Expert Working Group (CEWG) on Research and Development: Financing and Coordination.  The report  noted the failure of the current international IP system to incentivize research into diseases that disproportionally affect people in developing countries, and recommended a binding convention on R&D into neglected diseases.  At the Assembly, developed countries including the U.S. resisted calls for a binding convention.  A resolution was passed that called on the Director General of the World Health Organization to hold “an open-ended Members States meeting in order to analyze thoroughly the report and the feasibility of the recommendations proposed by the CEWG.”  The resolution  also calls on member states and others to increase their investments in R&D into neglected diseases, and to hold national level consultations to discuss the CEWG report.

World Health Organization Documents

• Draft Resolution
• CEWG Report

Statements on the WHA Resolution:

• Knowledge Ecology International
• Health Action International
• Universities Allied for Essential Medicines

Related/Background Documents

• MSF Briefing Document. How a Global R&D Convention Could Fill the Gaps Left by Today’s Medical Innovation System.
• Knowledge Ecology International. “Open letter to those who collectively produced the May 23, 2012 statement to the WIPO SCP on the topics of patents and health.”

Press Reports

• William New for IP Watch. “World Health Assembly: Agreement Reached On Neglected Disease R&D Process, But No Convention.”
• Roger Collier for the Canadian Medical Association News. “Binding R&D convention put on hold.”
• Kaiser News. “Officials At WHA Fail To Agree On Convention To Encourage R&D Into Health Issues In Developing Countries.”
• Zach Carter in the Huffington Post. “Obama Administration Blocks Global Health Fund To Fight Disease In Developing Nations.”