Eighth Board Meeting (Geneva, 2-3 July 2008)
The eighth Executive Board Meeting of the international drug purchasing facility, UNITAID, was held in Geneva, Switzerland from 2 to 3 July 2008, in the presence of all its Members and chaired by Mr Philippe Douste-Blazy.
Mr Ray Chambers, United Nations Special Envoy for Malaria, addressed the Board and highlighted the need of innovative financing for the prevention and treatment of Malaria.
The Board approved four new Projects for a total amount of over 182 million dollars. These include:
- To provide 20 million Insecticide-treated Nets, thereby significantly increasing coverage and filling gaps in eight African countries.
- To accelerate the implementation of comprehensive Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) services in the area of access to HIV care and treatment in nine countries. These countries account for 25% of global HIV infected pregnant women giving birth annually.
- To promote and safeguard the availability of ARV treatment and its good management for people living with HIV/AIDS, in particular mothers and children and increase capacity for laboratory facilities.
- To facilitate procurement and increase access to quality diagnostics for initiating and monitoring treatment of HIV/AIDS and malaria to help achieve global health and development goals. This Project also aims to strengthen capacity to monitor the quality of diagnostics in the field for expanding and strengthening the UN/WHO prequalification of diagnostics programme.
The expansion and extension of two ongoing UNITAID-funded Projects against tuberculosis for a total amount of over US$ 22 million met with approval. This funding will support additional treatments for children and drugs needed to treat multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB).
It was agreed that UNITAID will undertake a process to develop a set of tools for validating partners' capacities and readiness to implement UNITAID-approved Projects.
The Board supported the principle of establishing a patent pool for medicines* to provide patients in low and middle income countries with increased access to more appropriate and lower price medicines. A task force, composed of experts in patent law, legal and business risks, economic analysis, public health and medicines for the treatment of HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, will be set up shortly in order to propose an operational plan.
Finally, the Board examined the progress made by the voluntary solidarity contribution project since the last Board Meeting in April and has decided to organize an extraordinary Board Meeting to allow for further discussion.
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* A patent pool is a portfolio of assets consisting of the entire set of patents (and, if desired, know-how, dossiers and other intellectual assets) held by various actors (companies, universities, government institutions) related to a particular technology that are made available on a non-exclusive basis to a group of (in our case) manufacturers and distributors of medications. The pool is operated through the auspices of a licensing agency which holds licences to the patents (and other intellectual assets) for sub-license to manufacturers and distributors.
Mr Ray Chambers, United Nations Special Envoy for Malaria, addressed the Board and highlighted the need of innovative financing for the prevention and treatment of Malaria.
The Board approved four new Projects for a total amount of over 182 million dollars. These include:
- To provide 20 million Insecticide-treated Nets, thereby significantly increasing coverage and filling gaps in eight African countries.
- To accelerate the implementation of comprehensive Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) services in the area of access to HIV care and treatment in nine countries. These countries account for 25% of global HIV infected pregnant women giving birth annually.
- To promote and safeguard the availability of ARV treatment and its good management for people living with HIV/AIDS, in particular mothers and children and increase capacity for laboratory facilities.
- To facilitate procurement and increase access to quality diagnostics for initiating and monitoring treatment of HIV/AIDS and malaria to help achieve global health and development goals. This Project also aims to strengthen capacity to monitor the quality of diagnostics in the field for expanding and strengthening the UN/WHO prequalification of diagnostics programme.
The expansion and extension of two ongoing UNITAID-funded Projects against tuberculosis for a total amount of over US$ 22 million met with approval. This funding will support additional treatments for children and drugs needed to treat multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB).
It was agreed that UNITAID will undertake a process to develop a set of tools for validating partners' capacities and readiness to implement UNITAID-approved Projects.
The Board supported the principle of establishing a patent pool for medicines* to provide patients in low and middle income countries with increased access to more appropriate and lower price medicines. A task force, composed of experts in patent law, legal and business risks, economic analysis, public health and medicines for the treatment of HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, will be set up shortly in order to propose an operational plan.
Finally, the Board examined the progress made by the voluntary solidarity contribution project since the last Board Meeting in April and has decided to organize an extraordinary Board Meeting to allow for further discussion.
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* A patent pool is a portfolio of assets consisting of the entire set of patents (and, if desired, know-how, dossiers and other intellectual assets) held by various actors (companies, universities, government institutions) related to a particular technology that are made available on a non-exclusive basis to a group of (in our case) manufacturers and distributors of medications. The pool is operated through the auspices of a licensing agency which holds licences to the patents (and other intellectual assets) for sub-license to manufacturers and distributors.
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