Feb 7 2013
"For the first time, the three global intergovernmental bodies dealing with health, intellectual property and trade have pooled their expertise on a study of policies needed to advance medical and health technologies and to ensure they reach the people who need them," a WHO press release states. The book -- released by the WHO, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and World Trade Organization (WTO), and titled "Promoting Access to Medical Technologies and Innovation: Intersections between Public Health, Intellectual Property and Trade" -- "covers a broad range of complex, yet linked issues relating to public health and innovation in medical technologies, with the ultimate goal of accessibility -- making medical advances available globally to all who are sick," according to the press release. Speaking at the launch with the WIPO and WTO director generals, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said the report "demystifies an intricate and extremely complex landscape of laws and policies and makes them accessible to the non-specialist," the press release notes (2/5).
This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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