To: WHO Member States
On 1 February 2019, Italy submitted a draft resolution on transparency to the World Health Organization (WHO). This resolution is to be discussed in May 2019, at the 72nd session of the World Health Assembly (WHA).
The title of the proposed resolution is “Improving the transparency of markets for drugs, vaccines and other health-related technologies,” and it sets out a number of measures designed to achieve this objective.
There are deplorable asymmetries of access to information about many aspects of the innovation and supply chain for medicines, vaccines and other health technologies. The lack of information creates confusion about basic facts related to prices, research and development costs and other aspects of the value chain for medicines, vaccines and health technologies.
The resolution would create a work program for the WHO and norms for governments to cooperate in improving the transparency of various aspects of these technologies. This is a critical time for governments to consider reforms in pricing and incentives for innovation for health technologies. The transparency measures proposed in the resolution will ensure that consideration of such reforms will be based upon the best possible evidence.
We urge your government to support the resolution.
Organizations (in alphabetical order)
1. Access to Medicines Ireland (Ireland)
2. Accion Internacional para la Salud – Perú
3. Action against AIDS (Germany)
4. ACTION Global Health Advocacy Partnership (Global)
5. AIDES (France)
6. AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA)
7. AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) (US)
8. Alliance for Reproductive Health Rights (ARHR) (Ghana)
9. Associação Brasileira Interdisciplinar de AIDS (ABIA) (Brazil)
10. Ben Newman Hope Care Foundation (Ghana)
11. Botswana Network on Ethics, Law and HIV/AIDS (BONELA) (Botswana)
12. BUKO Pharma-Kampagne (Germany)
13. Cancer Alliance (South Africa)
14. Center for Health, Human Rights and Development (CEHURD) (Kampala, Uganda)
15. Centre for Community Studies, Action and Development (CENCOSAD) (Ghana)
16. Chasing Zero (UK)
17. Coalition Plus
18. Commons Network (EU)
19. Consumer Association the Quality of LIfe – EKPIZO (Greece)
20. Drug for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi)
21. Empower India (India)
22. European Alliance for Responsible R&D and Affordable Medicines
23. European Public Health Alliance (EPHA)
24. France Assos Santé (France)
25. Global Health Advocates (France)
26. Global Justice Now (UK)
27. Groupe sida Genève – (Switzerland)
28. Grupo de Trabalho sobre Propriedade Intelectual (GTPI) (Brazil)
29. Health Action International (HAI)
30. Health Gap
31. Health Innovation in Practice (HIP)
32. Heart to Heart Foundation (Thailand)
33. Hepatitis Scotland (UK)
34. IFARMA Foundation (Colombia)
35. Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility (ICCR)(US)
36. International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC)
37. Just Treatment (UK)
38. KEI Europe (Switzerland)
39. Kenya Legal & Ethical Issues Network (KELIN) (Kenya)
40. Kenyan Network of Cancer Organizations (KENCO) (Kenya)
41. Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
42. Korean Pharmacists for Democratic Society (KPDS) (South Korea)
43. Malawi Network of Religious Leaders Living with or Personally Affected by HIV and
AIDS (MANERELA+) (Malawi)
44. Médecins du Monde International
45. Médecins Sans Frontières Access Campaign
46. Misión Salud (Colombia)
47. NCD Alliance East Africa (EANCDA)
48. Non Communicable Disease Alliance of Kenya ( NCD-AK) (Kenya)
49. Oxfam
50. Pan African Positive Women’s Coalition-Zimbabwe
51. Pan-African Treatment Access Movement (PATAM)
52. People’s Health Movement (PHM)
53. People’s Health Institute (PHI) (South Korea)
54. PHM East Africa
55. PHM Kenya
56. Positive Malaysian Treatment Access & Advocacy Group (MTAAG+) (Malaysia)
57. Prescrire (France)
58. Public Citizen (US)
59. Public Eye (Switzerland)
60. Réseau Accès aux Médicaments Essentiels (RAME) (Burkina Faso)
61. Salud por Derecho (Spain)
62. Salud y Farmacos (USA)
63. Save the Children
64. SECTION27 (South Africa)
65. Solthis (France)
66. Southern African Programme on Access to Medicines and Diagnostics
67. STOPAIDS (UK)
68. T1International
69. Tanzania Breast Cancer Foundation (Tanzania)
70. Test Aankoop/Test Achats (Belgium)
71. Third World Network (TWN)
72. Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD)
73. TranspariMED (UK)
74. Treatment Action Group (TAG) (United States)
75. Treatment Advocacy and Literacy Campaign (TALC) – Zambia
76. Uganda NCD Alliance (Uganda)
77. Union for Affordable Cancer Treatment (UACT)
78. Universal Access to Health Care Campaign (UAHCC) (Ghana)
79. Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM)
80. Wemos (Netherlands)
81. Women’s Coalition Against Cancer ( WOCACA) (Malawi)
82. Yolse (Switzerland)
83. Young Professionals Chronic Disease Network (YP-CDN)
Individuals (in alphabetical order)
1. Aidan Hollis, Professor of Economics, University of Calgary.
2. Amy Kapczynski, Professor of Law, Yale Law School, Faculty Co-Director of the Global Health Justice Partnership, and Faculty Co-Director of the Collaboration for Research Integrity and Transparency .
3. Brook Baker, Professor of Law, Northeastern University, School of Law, Research Fellow, University of KwaZulu Natal in Durban, South Africa.
4. Diane Singhroy, PhD, Research Associate, McGill University.
5. Ellen ‘t Hoen, LLM, PhD. Director, Medicines Law & Policy.
6. Fifa Rahman, Board Member Unitaid NGO Delegation and PhD Candidate (International Trade and Intellectual Property), University of Leeds.
7. Gilberto de Lima Lopes Junior, MD, MBA, FAMS, Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine Medical Director for International Programs Associate Director for Global Oncology Co-Leader, Lung Cancer Site Disease Group Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami and the Miller School of Medicine.
8. Hani Serag, Egyptian Foundation for Health for All
9. Hannes Braberg, Staff Scientist at University of California, San Francisco.
10. Jorge Bermudez, MD, DSc, Head of the Department of Medicines and Pharmaceutical Policies, National School of Public Health/ Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Member of the UN Secretary-General High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines.
11. Lawrence Gostin, University Professor, Georgetown University, Washington, DC
12. Leeza Osipenko, PhD. Senior Lecturer in Practice, LSE.
13. Margo A. Bagley, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law, Emory University School of Law, Faculty Fellow, Emory Global Health Initiative (EGHI), Senior Fellow, Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), Collaborator, Harvard University Global Access in Action (GAiA) Program.
14. Mariana Mazzucato, Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value, University College London; Founder and Director, the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose.
15. Marie-Paule Kieny, PhD. Director of Research, Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale (INSERM), Chair, Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative Board of Directors, and Chair, Medicines Patent Pool Foundation Governance Board.
16. Melissa Barber, PhD student, Harvard University.
17. Ophira Ginsburg, Associate Professor, Department of Population Health, New York University School of Medicine.
18. Ravi Ram, Director, RMH Systems, and Independent Health Systems Evaluator, Kenya.
19. Suerie Moon, MPA, PhD. Director of Research at the Global Health Centre, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva and Adjunct Lecturer on
Global Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
20. William “Terry” W. Fisher III. WilmerHale Professor of Intellectual Property Law at Harvard Law School and Faculty Director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society.
