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Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...t_gets_cheap_vaccines/articleshow/3049978.cms
India to part with flu data only if it gets cheap vaccines
18 May 2008, 0331 hrs IST,Kounteya Sinha,TNN
NEW DELHI: Indonesia ? the nation with the highest rates of infection and deaths in humans from the highly pathogenic avian influenza (AI) ? has found a friend in India, on the controversial issue of sharing the deadly H5N1 virus.
Union health minister A Ramadoss, who is heading the Indian delegation to the World Health Assembly (WHA), will pressurise the WHO to guarantee benefits like access to cheap vaccines made from the virulent virus strains, circulating in developing countries.
"Until such benefits are guaranteed, developing countries like India and Indonesia cannot feel confident about sharing the genetic make up of such viruses," Ramadoss told TOI.
India, which has had multiple outbreaks of AI among poultry in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Manipur, West Bengal and Tripura is yet to report a single human case. The 61st WHA that kicks off in Geneva from May 19 will see 193 member countries take another crack at resolving the long standing dispute of virus sharing.
The lingering stalemate was triggered when Indonesia refused to supply H5N1 viruses to the WHO?s 50-year-old Global Influenza Surveillance Network in January 2007 fearing pharmaceutical companies would develop vaccines that would be too costly for poor countries to afford.
Ramadoss added: "Countries who share the genetic details of their virus must gain adequate returns by doing so. We will therefore support Indonesia?s stand at the WHA. Countries which are home to such dangerous virus hold their property rights and profits reaped from their study should be mutually beneficial."
Indonesia?s health minister Siti Fadilah Supari had told TOI recently: "The system at present ensures that developed countries make the vaccine with our virus and we will have to buy it from them at the time of a pandemic. There needs to be a fair, transparent and equitable mechanism in virus sharing." India will also press WHO into modifying the virus sharing agreement which will specify that the genetic data will be used for diagnostic purposes and not for commercial gain.
Supari recounted her country?s bad experience with the small pox virus, which made them cautious.
"In 1926, small pox virus was found in Indonesia. In 1962, we developed a vaccine and in 1974, we managed to wipe out the virus. In 1984, WHO asked all nations to destroy the last known samples of the virus. We destroyed even our labs."
kounteya.sinha@timesgroup.com
India to part with flu data only if it gets cheap vaccines
18 May 2008, 0331 hrs IST,Kounteya Sinha,TNN
NEW DELHI: Indonesia ? the nation with the highest rates of infection and deaths in humans from the highly pathogenic avian influenza (AI) ? has found a friend in India, on the controversial issue of sharing the deadly H5N1 virus.
Union health minister A Ramadoss, who is heading the Indian delegation to the World Health Assembly (WHA), will pressurise the WHO to guarantee benefits like access to cheap vaccines made from the virulent virus strains, circulating in developing countries.
"Until such benefits are guaranteed, developing countries like India and Indonesia cannot feel confident about sharing the genetic make up of such viruses," Ramadoss told TOI.
India, which has had multiple outbreaks of AI among poultry in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Manipur, West Bengal and Tripura is yet to report a single human case. The 61st WHA that kicks off in Geneva from May 19 will see 193 member countries take another crack at resolving the long standing dispute of virus sharing.
The lingering stalemate was triggered when Indonesia refused to supply H5N1 viruses to the WHO?s 50-year-old Global Influenza Surveillance Network in January 2007 fearing pharmaceutical companies would develop vaccines that would be too costly for poor countries to afford.
Ramadoss added: "Countries who share the genetic details of their virus must gain adequate returns by doing so. We will therefore support Indonesia?s stand at the WHA. Countries which are home to such dangerous virus hold their property rights and profits reaped from their study should be mutually beneficial."
Indonesia?s health minister Siti Fadilah Supari had told TOI recently: "The system at present ensures that developed countries make the vaccine with our virus and we will have to buy it from them at the time of a pandemic. There needs to be a fair, transparent and equitable mechanism in virus sharing." India will also press WHO into modifying the virus sharing agreement which will specify that the genetic data will be used for diagnostic purposes and not for commercial gain.
Supari recounted her country?s bad experience with the small pox virus, which made them cautious.
"In 1926, small pox virus was found in Indonesia. In 1962, we developed a vaccine and in 1974, we managed to wipe out the virus. In 1984, WHO asked all nations to destroy the last known samples of the virus. We destroyed even our labs."
kounteya.sinha@timesgroup.com