The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced today that they will commit $10 billion over the next 10 years to help research, develop and deliver vaccines for the world’s poorest countries.  The Foundation estimates that increased vaccination could save more than 8 million children by 2020.

“We must make this the decade of vaccines,” said Bill Gates. “Vaccines already save and improve millions of lives in developing countries. Innovation will make it possible to save more children than ever before.”

World Health Advocacy co-hosted the "Access to Rx Drugs:  What Every Patient Should Know" workshop held in Toronto, ON on September 21 & 22, 2009.  Elisabeth Fowler helped to moderate the workshop and also delivered the attached presentation, providing an overview of the process of medical innovation.

A majority of Canadians (73.1%) agree that the Government should strongly enforce intellectual property rights in relation to the development of new medicines. [1]

According to a recent survey [1], a majority of Canadians (77 per cent) recognize that innovation – in the medical field as well as other sectors – is essential to the future prosperity of the country. Canadians view encouraging new discoveries and innovations as a more important factor in economic prosperity than cutting business taxes or reducing red tape.

It is encouraging that multinational pharmaceutical companies are continuing to invest significantly in research into neglected diseases.

The World Health Organization (WHO), which has been intensely debating intellectual property (IP) rights issues, has restructured its management of the issues, elevating IP to the director general’s office. A new team for public health, innovation and intellectual property has been created. (1)

This move follows the close of the second meeting of the Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property (IGWG), which adjourned with no agreed strategy or plan of action amidst concerns raised by patient groups that the issue has become polarized and that the IGWG process has gone off-track.