Read this article in Turkish here.

Turkey 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, Turkey 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, Turkey will help shape the discussion about how the WHO should approach this issue.

Unfortunately, the WHO’s Roadmap, 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 the use of 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. Turkey has championed the global innovation ecosystem and encouraged world leaders to recognize the important role innovation plays in ensuring patients have access to the medicines they need. This support is not surprising, given the country’s recent commitment to bolstering their biopharmaceutical industry and encouraging the development of lifesaving cures for patients in need.

Take Turkey’s patent figures, for example. In 2016, Turkey filed 13 biotechnology patents under the Patent Cooperation Treaty—a nearly threefold increase from 2010. Moreover, according to the most recent figures, in a single year nearly $195 million was invested in pharmaceutical industry research and development (R&D). These impressive figures have helped Turkey maintain their designation on the 2018 Global Innovation Index (GII) as one of the top 50 innovative economies in the world. In fact, among upper-middle-income countries, Turkey ranked 4th on innovation efficiency and 5th on innovation output, indicating their innovation ecosystem is primed to expand.

Turkey’s statements in recent international meetings show that the country is promoting and protecting the knowledge, IP and entrepreneurship that drive global innovation. Turkey has displayed a sound understanding of the critical role innovation plays in improving access to medicines for patients.

• At the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) 58th Assembly of Member States in 2018, Turkey promoted its growing innovation economy. The Turkish delegation declared a commitment to “strengthening the Turkish corporate system with a focus on fostering creative and corporate-based industries,” and noted that they are “pleased to see our innovation capacity and patent application numbers are increasing consistently.”
• Turkey’s delegation highlighted their recent innovation progress further at the prior year’s WIPO Assembly. Specifically, the delegation touted Turkey’s new IP Code, stating that it features “a more user-friendly structure to facilitate examination processes, reducing the average registration periods, enhancing the instruments for enforcement of IP rights, encouraging commercialization and increasing the administrative capacity of the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office.”

These statements show Turkey’s deep commitment to furthering innovation so patients around the world can access today’s treatments and tomorrow’s cures.

As the WHO Executive Board considers how to improve access to medicines, Turkey has an opportunity to rebut the idea that weakening IP will do anything to improve access. As a global health leader and major funder of development assistance, Turkey 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. At the Executive Board meeting, Turkey should join other countries in expressing concerns about the WHO’s deepening involvement in problematic IP issues. Turkey also can reaffirm its global leadership by speaking up clearly and convincingly for the need to protect IP and innovation.

Now’s the time to act. Patients around the world depend on Turkey 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.