02.01.2017
UN General Assembly Resolution: TRIPS Flexibilities, High-Level Panel On Medicines Access

Intellectual Property Watch "The United Nations General Assembly this month is considering a resolution committing to elevate health issues to the highest levels of foreign policy. The resolution includes references and commitments related to dozens of existing instruments and tools aimed at improving health, including a full range of those on access to medicines, such as patent flexibilities under trade rules, and the recent report of the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on access to medicines and innovation.

(...) Countries have been making a concerted effort to address rising prices for some drugs and the seemingly endless gap between available drugs and their availability for the extreme poor. One focus of the effort has been on lowering prices by separating R&D costs from end-product pricing.

The High-Level Panel report has become controversial through resistance from a small number of developed countries whose industries benefit from the status quo." (Photo: United Nations Development/flickr)