The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #74002

James Love, Consumor Project on Technology, P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036, 202-387-8030, james.love@cptech.org

Over the past several years there has been increasing awareness that the current trade framework for addressing the need to support health care R&D is skewed toward privatized and closed research models, and also that it can present barriers for access to medicines. Public Health groups are now calling for a new trade framework for health care R&D that is more balanced, and also that will address a wide range of public health objectives. This new treaty framework would focus on requirements that countries devote appropriate levels of GDP to health care R&D, while leaving countries flexibility in terms of how such R&D is funded. Different strategies for intellectual property protection, public sector R&D, or research mandates would be used to support R&D, each mechanism competing again the others. The framework would emphasize greater transparency of R&D investment flows, explicit mechanisms for national incentives to fund R&D in open research and also for projects with high public health priorities, such as for vaccines or neglected diseases. The framework would also allow countries to explore new mechanisms for funding R&D that were consistent with post product entry pricing at marginal cost or other mechanisms to address concerns over access, and to promote capacity building and technology transfer to less developed countries.

Learning Objectives:

• At the conclusion of the session,the participant will recognize that a new framework is needed in order to support R&D and to improve access to essential medicines.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.