From: Jessica Hamer <JHamer@oxfam.org.uk>
Date: Mon, Jan 25, 2010 at 1:38 PM
Subject: ITPC UNITAID Civil Society Delegations communique - eleventh UNITAID Board meeting, December 2009
To: internationaltreatmentpreparedness@yahoogroups.com
UNITAID – 11th Executive Board Meeting
14th-15th December 2009, WHO, Geneva, Switzerland
Civil Society Delegations Communiqué
Outline of this Communiqué:
Introduction: What is UNITAID? What are the UNITAID Civil Society delegations? How can Civil Society actors engage with the delegations?
Delegation activities around the 11th UNITAID Executive Board meeting: How did the Civil Society delegations prepare for the Board meeting? What is this communiqué for?
What were the Civil Society delegates’ key issues at the eleventh UNITAID Board meeting?
Introduction
What is UNITAID?
UNITAID is an international drug-purchasing facility, intervening for market impact to scale up access to prevention and treatment products of HIV and AIDS, TB and malaria in developing countries. UNITAID raises money through a combination of taxes on airline tickets and long-term government funding. UNITAID is also a vehicle to encourage follow-on innovation, to ensure medicines are available in formulations and combinations that are best suited to the target populations and treatment conditions in developing countries.
What are the UNITAID Civil Society delegations?
The UNITAID Board has 10 seats, including a seat for communities affected by HIV, TB or malaria, and another seat for NGOs involved in the global fight against these diseases. The Communities and NGO delegates to the UNITAID Board form the Civil Society delegations. Communities and NGOs on the Board choose to work together a great deal, but constitute two distinct delegations, each with its own voice and strengths. The official representatives were selected by an open and transparent process. Please contact the delegations’ Liaison Officer, or see ‘Civil Society and UNITAID – An introduction’ for more information:
(available at http://www.oxfam.org.uk/resources/policy/health/civil-society-unitaid.html)
How can Civil Society actors engage with the UNITAID Civil Society delegations?
There are three groups civil society actors can join to engage with the UNITAID Civil Society delegations. These are:
Contact Group: A broad group of stakeholders who receive regular updates on the activities of the UNITAID Civil Society delegations. Any person living with HIV or TB or from a community affected by malaria, or from an NGO involved in the global fight against these three diseases, can join the Contact Group.
Communities’ Support Team: A small group consisting of local community treatment-access activists and people living with the diseases, established to help the communities’ delegation connect with the needs of people in communities, and to expand awareness of issues relating to UNITAID.
Advisory Group: A group of Northern and Southern experts with particular knowledge of medicines policies, supply-chain, diagnostics, medicines formulations, patents and Intellectual Property rules. Members of this group commit to reviewing key UNITAID documents prior to meetings, and may participate in pre-meetings and teleconferences on specific issues. Any member of the ‘Contact Group’ or ‘Communities’ Support Team’ may request to join the ‘Advisory Group’.
Delegation activities around the 11th UNITAID Executive Board meeting
How did the Civil Society delegations prepare for the 11th UNITAID Executive Board meeting?
The 11th Executive Board of UNITAID convened in Geneva on 14th-15th December 2009. The Civil Society delegations held pre-meetings on 12th-13th December to prepare for the Board meeting, attended by thirteen people from a wide range of Civil Society organisations. A process of document review with the delegation’s Advisory Group was also conducted and utilised in pre-meeting discussions.
From the discussions held during the delegations’ pre-meetings, each delegation then formulated ‘talking points’ to use at the Board meeting. This process ensures agreement is reached within each constituency on the key points to be made at Board level. Please contact the delegation Liaison Officer if you would like to see the ‘talking points’ used at the December UNITAID Board Meeting.
What is this communiqué for?
This communiqué is to report back about the activities of the Civil Society delegates at the recent UNITAID Board meeting (14th-15th December). This is part of the transparency and accountability mechanism set up by Communities and NGOs who follow UNITAID closely.
3. What were the Civil Society delegates’ key issues at the eleventh UNITAID Board meeting?
Key issues discussed at this meeting, input of the Civil Society delegations, and outcomes, are outlined below:
UNITAID achievements in 2009
UNITAID now has 30+ governments from the North and South, implementing the airline tax/committed to long-term funding pledges. In turn, UNITAID funds ten partners across the three disease areas. Major achievements in 2009 have included new formulations for TB and malaria, substantial price reductions for ARVs and 40 additional products pre-qualified by WHO Pre-Qualification Programme.
The first UNITAID Implementers Meeting was held in October in Nairobi, Kenya, and was attended by more than 100 representatives of countries, civil society and implementing partners.
Patent Pool Implementation Plan
In July 2008 the Board of UNITAID agreed to establish a Patent Pool, with a ‘Patent Pool Implementation Plan’ being presented at the December 2009 Board Meeting. The Patent Pool is a simple system where patent owners give their patents to UNITAID, which then licenses them to companies to develop cheaper, better-formulated medicines. The Pool acts as a ‘one-stop shop’ for managing the negotiations and receiving and paying the royalties. This will enable production of much needed new medicines such as fixed dose combinations adapted for children. The Pool will be open to all companies, therefore accelerating competition and bringing prices down. An initial list of priority “missing” ARVs has been drafted by the World Health Organisation’s HIV guidelines department, to identify priority license requests to address to patent-owning drug companies.
During the Civil Society delegations’ pre-meetings, the delegates learnt of the serious concerns of some important members of their constituencies about the Patent Pool. Unfortunately, by that time it was too late to have detailed bilateral discussions between delegates and these constituents. Since then however, the delegates (i) have written back to constituents with clarifications as to their own view of the civil society strategy regarding the Patent Pool, (ii) have pressed UNITAID to provide official, detailed answers to constituents’ questions about the Pool, (iii) have written an update to the group and (iv) are organising an open telephone conference specifically to discuss civil society’s strategy on UNITAID’s Patent Pool.
Discussions around the Patent Pool Implementation Plan at the Board Meeting focused on: ensuring that the Patent Pool is inclusive of Middle Income Countries, does not affect national intellectual property laws and countries’ abilities to use TRIPS flexibilities, does not lead to company monopolies, and does not lead to a global patent system (if a country does not have a patent on a particular product that is in the patent pool). There were also questions about the governance of the new entity that will manage the logistics of the relationship between licensing and licensee companies, how to ensure that the pool has a close relationship with UNITAID, and how to make it sustainable.
Civil Society delegations emphasised that:
The Pool should not affect countries national intellectual property law or countries’ ability to use TRIPS flexibilities
It should be open to all developing countries, including Middle Income Countries as per the UNITAID mandate
The Pool is a cost effective project for UNITAID given the high economic and health benefits of the Patent Pool.
Civil Society delegations also urged the board to approve the way forward as soon as possible so that new medicines can be made available and affordable for those who need them.
The resulting resolution approved the Patent Pool Implementation Plan, and emphasised that the Pool will not inhibit countries’ abilities to use TRIPS flexibilities. A separate legal entity will be established, enabling negotiations with potential licensors/licenses to take place. Final analysis of the Pool’s governance structure will take place during a forthcoming Special Board meeting on February 5th.
(See http://www.unitaid.eu/en/Eleventh-Executive-Board-meeting-adopted-resolutions.html)
Finalising of UNITAID Strategy Document 2010-2012
Major work has taken place in recent months to finalise the UNITAID Strategy 2010-2012.
The Civil Society delegations have been instrumental in developing this document, notably ensuring that the Strategy:
Maintains an overall focus on market impact
Stipulates exit strategies are to be defined for UNITAID funded projects
Includes a system of issuing detailed and targeted calls for proposals, with clear steps enshrined for the selection of projects.
A work plan for the implementation of the Strategy is to be produced in 2010.
Project Funding Requests
Several funding proposals were submitted to the Board for discussion and approval, following recommendations made by the Interim Proposal Review Committee (PRC). These included:
Extension of paediatric ARV provision, with extension of project scope to include South Africa and Haiti. A resolution approving this project extension (but excluding South Africa and Haiti due to a lack of analysis of potential market impact an extension to these two countries would create) was approved. Due to the recent devastating earthquake in Haiti, this decision is currently being reconsidered by the Board.
Prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) project extension. Suggestions were made that this extension should not be funded for more than one year, during which time a transition strategy should be outlined. A decision on this project was postponed.
Three proposals received in response to Viral Load RFP: Civil Society delegations thought that one proposal was strong on market impact, one on health and medical aspects while the third had a novel approach to stimulating generic production, and therefore building on these strengths was the best scenario. It was suggested a consortium approach between them might be recommended.
Funding Support for the Civil Society Delegation
A request for funding activities to enable the smooth running of the Civil Society delegations was submitted to the Board for approval. The funding would be used to support the Liaison Officer position, engagement of civil society in preparation and consultation meetings, and communications costs. This funding request was approved, subject to the submission of a satisfactory agreement between Oxfam (hosting organisation) and UNITAID, including details of reporting requirements. Budget details are available upon request.
___________________________________________________________________
Next Board Meeting: 8-9th June 2010 (Location to be confirmed)
For any further information, if you are interested in engaging with the UNITAID Civil Society delegations further (through the delegations’ Contact Group, Advisory Group or Communities’ Support Team), or if you have any feedback for the delegations, please contact UNITAID Civil Society delegations’ Liaison Officer, Jessica Hamer, on JHamer@oxfam.org.uk
A leaflet on Civil Society and UNITAID is also available on the following URL: http://www.oxfam.org.uk/resources/policy/health/civil-society-unitaid.html
Jessica Hamer
Liaison officer, Civil Society Delegations to UNITAID Board
Telephone: +44 (0)1865 473508
Email: JHamer@oxfam.org.uk
Skype: 'jessica.hamer'
Oxfam works with others to overcome poverty and suffering
Oxfam GB is a member of Oxfam International and a company limited by guarantee registered in England No. 612172.
Registered office: Oxfam House, John Smith Drive, Cowley, Oxford, OX4 2JY.
A registered charity in England and Wales (no 202918) and Scotland (SCO 039042)
--
Sara L.M. Davis, Ph.D. ("Meg")
Executive Director
Asia Catalyst
www.asiacatalyst.org
www.yazhoudiaocha.com
www.songandsilence.com
--
★杯葛比尔与梅林达盖茨基金会在中国 Boycott Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in China https://sites.google.com/site/boycottgatesfoundation/
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~----~----------~----~----~----~------~----
“China AIDS Group中国艾滋病网络 论坛”
A：要在此论坛发帖，请发电子邮件到 chinaaidsgroup@googlegroups.com
B：要退订此论坛，请发邮件至 chinaaidsgroup-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
C：Contact us: chinaaidsgroup@gmail.com
★中国艾滋病博物馆/China AIDS Museum： http://www.AIDSmuseum.cn
旗下网站：
——艾博维客 AIDS Wiki ： http://www.AIDSwiki.org
——艾博聚合（艾滋病博客群
）http://www.wanyanhai.org
——中国艾滋病网络( Email Group with over 2400 members)：http://www.ChinaAIDSgroup.org 【http://chinaaidsgroup.blogspot.com 】
——中国艾滋病地图/China AIDS Map：http://www.AIDSmaps.org
——空腹健身运动：http://www.HungerStrikeforAIDS.org
——艾滋人权 AIDS Rights： http://www.AIDSrights.net
——常坤：为艾滋病防治努力一生：Http://www.changkun.org
★ 凡是挑�、��、非理性、�於情�性、胡�批�和�意�之言�，或是匿名人士之言�，以及所�表意�出�有不雅、粗鄙之文字等，本�件��不予以�示！
没有评论:
发表评论