Read this article in Vietnamese here.

Viet Nam is now serving a three-year term on the World Health Organization (WHO)’s Executive Board, a key decision-making body that guides the WHO’s work on global health. Alongside thirty-three other countries on the Executive Board, Viet Nam will attend the 144th session of the Executive Board in January 2019 to discuss topics ranging from polio eradication to the health implications of climate change.

But perhaps the most important topic on the Executive Board’s agenda is the WHO’s proposed Roadmap on Access to Medicines. This Roadmap sets priorities for the next five years of the WHO’s work on medicines around the world. As an Executive Board member, Viet Nam will help shape the discussion about how the WHO should approach this issue.

Unfortunately, the WHO’s Roadmap, as proposed by the WHO’s Secretariat, has serious problems that Member States need to fix. For example, the Roadmap envisions an expanded WHO role advising countries on intellectual property, such as the use of “compulsory licenses” (sometimes called “TRIPS flexibilities”) to allow the manufacture of patented medicines without the patent owners’ consent. This is unnecessary and would gravely harm global innovation – making it harder for patients to access today’s medicines and undermining investment in tomorrow’s new treatments and cures.

The WHO’s Roadmap reflects a tendency at the WHO to see patents as a barrier to access.  But this isn’t true: research has found no correlation between intellectual property and access to medicines.  Nearly all the drugs the WHO deems “essential” are already off-patent yet still out of reach for millions due to other factors, such as weak and underfunded health care systems.  Strengthening IP can actually facilitate access, both by stimulating new discoveries and making it easier for innovative medicines to reach patients that need them.  

The WHO is also ill-suited to make these recommendations: it lacks the expertise to advise countries on the complex technical, economic and trade implications of intellectual property (IP) protections. Many countries have already raised concerns that the WHO should not spend its limited resources working on such polarizing tasks that are unlikely to improve access to medicines. 

WHO Executive Board members need to step up—and speak out—about the vital role of IP in spurring new discoveries. Viet Nam has long promoted an effective innovation ecosystem and encouraged world leaders to recognize the important role discovery plays in helping nations and patients. This doesn’t come as a surprise considering the country’s noticeable progress in recent years in improving IP protection and promoting innovation across major sectors of the Vietnamese market.

In 2017, for example, Viet Nam climbed twelve places in the Global Innovation Index and in 2018 the country moved up again, securing the spot as the world’s 45th most innovative global economy. Viet Nam’s precipitous rise in global innovation rankings has resulted, in large part, from policies Vietnamese leaders have put in place to create an environment that adequately protects innovation and supports innovative progress. In 2017, the government—in partnership with the World Intellectual Property Organization—set out a National Strategy on Intellectual Property, which details short and long term goals for better enforcement of IP rights as a means for innovation-based development. The Vietnamese IP Research Institute within the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) has also established IP management training courses that aim to educate and raise awareness on the creation, protection and management of IP rights. 

Since the Vietnamese government is pushing to protect and facilitate innovation, Viet Nam has a great opportunity to do more to defend IP rights and protections in international forums. In fact, Viet Nam’s statements in recent international meetings show that its leaders are aware of the vital importance of their strong innovation economy—not just for their country’s own development but for improvements to global progress:

• At the 2018 World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Assemblies in Geneva, Viet Nam defended IP with the Vietnamese delegate calling for “the creation of an IP friendly environment” and the “development of IP infrastructure, human resource training and raising public awareness.”
• During another 2018 WIPO meeting, the Director of Viet Nam’s National Office of Intellectual Property said “the Vietnamese Government has resolved to promote IP protection to turn IP into a real driving force for socio-economic growth.”
• This sentiment was echoed during a workshop on IP rights in Viet Nam. Representatives from the Market Surveillance Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade stating that “enforcement of intellectual property rights is increasingly important for the socio-economic development of the country.”

These statements show Viet Nam’s deep commitment to protecting IP so that innovation is adequately supported; this commitment is not only important for sustained global socioeconomic development but also vital to ensuring patients around the world can access today’s treatments and tomorrow’s cures.

As WHO Executive Board considers how to improve access to medicines, Viet Nam has an opportunity to rebut the idea that weakening IP will do anything to improve access. As a country rapidly rising as a leader in innovation, Viet Nam can help focus the WHO on tackling the real barriers to access, such as weak and under-funded health care systems, poor infrastructure and taxes/tariffs. In particular, Viet Nam should speak out clearly at the Executive Board meeting to convey concerns about the Roadmap and ensure it does not lead to expanded WHO activities that would undermine IP globally.

Now’s the time to act. Patients around the world depend on Viet Nam and the other Executive Board members to lead the charge on proactive and comprehensive solutions that address the real and complex obstacles to better global health.