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In early February, health experts from Chile and 33 other countries will convene at the 146th session of the World Health Organization (WHO) Executive Board. These delegates form the key decision-making body that guides the WHO on global health, touching on diverse topics ranging from vaccines and food safety to maternal, newborn and child nutrition.
This year the Executive Board will revisit the WHO’s Global Strategy and Plan of Action on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property (GSPOA). Negotiated for many years and approved by consensus in 2008, the GSPOA is a framework to help countries set policies to drive discovery of new treatments and cures for diseases that disproportionately affect developing countries. Critically, the GSPOA recognized the importance of intellectual property (IP) protections as “an important incentive in the development of health care products.”
Unfortunately, there have been efforts to refocus the GSPOA on issues that would harm innovation, both for developed and developing countries. Rather than strengthen the IP protections that support health care innovation, some groups have urged governments to weaken them, for example, by breaking patents on new inventions – a drastic action known as compulsory licensing. But studies continue to refute the flawed notion that intellectual property protections prevent patients from accessing new technologies and point to many others barriers that stand in the way.
Chile – which has consistently ranked among the most innovative countries in Latin America – has a particularly important role to play. Chilean patients – and Chile’s economy – n benefit from an innovation-friendly ecosystem.
The February 2020 WHO Executive Board meeting is an excellent opportunity for Chile to underscore the value of intellectual property on the global stage – and help to find real solutions to pressing global health challenges.
Take the remarkable growth in Chile’s biopharmaceutical sector, for example. In recent years, Chile biotechnology sector has grown by more than 30 percent, according to the Chilean Association of Biotechnology (ASEMBIO), making the industry one of the most promising emerging sectors in the country. Moreover, Chile leads Latin America in number of clinical trials per capita, with 71.4 trials per million population, according to the most recent figures. And Chile ranks 51st in the world and the top country in Latin America per the most recent World Intellectual Property Organization’s Global Innovation Index. This success is due in large part to the Chilean government’s support for innovation over the past several decades, namely “Start-Up Chile,” a set of pro-innovation policies and incentives dating back to 2010.
The February 2020 WHO Executive Board meeting is an excellent opportunity for Chile to underscore the value of intellectual property on the global stage – and help to find real solutions to pressing global health challenges.
For example, Chile can help prompt a serious conversation about better using incentives, including intellectual property, to spur more research and development into diseases affecting the developing world. Chile can also stress the need for countries, at all levels of development, to have strong health care systems that enable universal access to safe and affordable medicines.
