Preparing The World For Influenza Pandemic, Industry Role Key, Says WHO

[tetano]

An influenza pandemic is like the sword of Damocles over the world, and the recent H1N1 pandemic showed that the global response was inadequate, said the co-chairs of a World Health Organization group working on pandemic influenza preparedness meeting this week.

Negotiations that were described as delicate by the co-chairs are being done behind closed doors and unadvertised consultations with industry might draw some criticism about the lack of transparency.

The Open-Ended Working Group of Member States on Pandemic Influenza Preparedness: sharing of influenza viruses and access to vaccines and other benefits (OEWG/PIP) is meeting from 11-15 April.

During a press briefing today, co-chairs Bente Angell-Hansen of Norway and Juan Jose Gomez-Camacho of Mexico said the world was not prepared to face a pandemic in an efficient manner. The goal of the working group is to present to next month?s World Health Assembly (WHA) a framework for a global system that is effective, efficient, coherent, transparent, and fair, Gomez-Camacho said.

The previous meeting of the group, in December, ended on a positive note and hopes for the group to reach consensus at the April meeting (IPW, WHO, 24 December 2010).

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http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/2011/04/12/preparing-the-world-to-influenza-pandemic-industry-key-role-says-who/

[tetano]

Re: Preparing The World For Influenza Pandemic, Industry Role Key, Says WHO

Preventing pandemics

The new international consensus on sharing swine flu vaccine and virus samples is a major victory in the battle against the pandemic. It marks a turning point in international cooperation in the field of medicine and public health. The agreement, brokered by the World Health organisation (WHO), is to be formally adopted by 193 member countries at the forthcoming World Health Assembly later this month. It will allow countries in dire need of low cost medical solutions to public health challenges affordable access to essential vaccines, anti-viral drugs, diagnostic kits and even vaccine production technology during disease outbreaks. The protocol provides for binding regimes for sharing of virus samples and the vaccine prepared from them between developed and developing countries. It is significant that for the first time such an inter-governmental treaty has the support of multinational drug companies. They have agreed to work with national health services and the WHO?s laboratory network to put in place a reliable framework to fight pandemics. Some 30 major pharmaceutical companies have consented to earmark at least 10 per cent of their pandemic vaccine manufacturing capacity for donation to the WHO or for supplying to developing countries at reasonable prices. Going a step further, they have also agreed to transfer the vaccine production technology in case they cannot meet the vaccine requirement during disease outbreaks.

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http://www.sify.com/finance/preventing-pandemics-news-analysis-lffbv6fjcjd.html