A/63/263 24. The company should consult widely with the World Health Organization, World Health Organization/Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases 13 and other relevant organizations, including leading civil society groups, with a view to enhancing its contribution to research and development for neglected diseases. 25. The company should engage constructively with key international and other initiatives that are searching for new, sustainable and effective approaches to accelerate and enhance research and development for neglected diseases. Commentary: By providing an incentive for pharmaceutical companies to invest in research and development, the intellectual property regime makes a major contribution to the discovery of new medicines that save lives and reduce suffering. Where there is no economically viable market, however, the incentive is inadequate and the regime fails to generate significant innovation. For this reason, a different approach is needed to address the vitally important right-to-health challenge of neglected or poverty-related diseases. Defined in the Preamble, neglected diseases mainly afflict the poorest people in the poorest countries. The record shows that research and development has not addressed key priority health needs of lowincome and middle-income countries. More specifically, research and development has given insufficient attention to neglected diseases. There is evidence, however, that some pharmaceutical companies are taking active measures to reverse this trend. 14 The right to the highest attainable standard of health not only requires that existing medicines are accessible, but also that much-needed new medicines are developed as soon as possible. Neglected diseases demand special attention because they tend to afflict the most disadvantaged (Guideline 5). Guideline 23 does not make the unreasonable demand that all companies provide in-house research and development for neglected diseases. Rather, all companies should make some contribution towards research and development for neglected diseases. Guidelines 23-25 signal other steps that companies should take to address the historic neglect of poverty-related diseases. Patents and licensing 26. The company should respect the right of countries to use, to the full, the provisions in the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) (1994), which allow flexibility for the purpose of promoting access to medicines, including the provisions relating to compulsory licensing and parallel imports. The company should make and respect a public commitment not to lobby for more demanding protection of intellectual property interests than those required by TRIPS, such as additional limitations on compulsory licensing. 27. The company should respect the letter and spirit of the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health (2001) that recognizes a State’s right to protect public health and promote access to medicines for all. __________________ 13 14 08-45647 UNICEF, UNDP, World Bank, WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases. See report by Dr. Mary Moran, et al., The New Landscape of Neglected Disease Drug Development (The Wellcome Trust, 2005). 21