"Philadelphia Consensus Statement" Calls upon WHO, Academia, to Bolster Poor Nations' Benefits from Health Research
18 Nov 2006
A coalition of prestigious scientists and an association of students have converged to request that the World Health Organization (WHO) expand its global agenda by pursuing strategies that would allow universities to provide greater access to vital medicines--and the exchange of critical knowledge--to impoverished nations. The Philadelphia Consensus Statement, issued on November 15, represents a petition to achieve those objectives by altering academia's current practices for licensing vital technologies, as well as by reshaping higly-restrictive intellectual property (IP) rights.
The petition essentially offers particular strategies that can be adopted by academia to permit greater access to medical research findings throughout impoverished nations. That would be accomplished through measures such as changing technology licensing practices in academic institutions, as well as altering IP rights across borders. The Consensus Statement also provides "proposals" as to how academia can facilitate greater access by impoverished nations to medical research, including the granting of IP rights to private corporations, with the objective of their being able to create and market for the abroad generic copies of vital medicines. It also calls for a decrease in prices for those medicines, as well as the relaxing of patent provisions.
The Consensus Statement also encourages greater communication between well-off nations and impoverished ones, by emphasizing greater "public-private" partnerships, as well as research exemptions concerning patents or licenses originating within universities.
Source: Tallaksen, E. Universities urged: 'Share benefits of health research.' SciDev.Net. Nov. 17, 2006. [Online]
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