CEWG recommends WHA adopt international convention on R&D

The chairs of the Consultative Expert Working Group on Research and Development (CEWG), John-Arne Rottingen and Claudia Chamas, in this week's PLoS Medicine, "recommend[d] the May 2012 World Health Assembly adopt an international convention on research and development (R&D) that will bind member states to action and catalyze new knowledge for diseases that primarily affect the global poor but for which patents provide insufficient market incentives," a PLoS press release states. They write, "We recommend a role for WHO in the stronger coordination of R&D and suggest pooling of financial investments to secure efficient allocations to where demands and opportunities are identified through active participation of developing countries," according to the press release (5/15).