REGION OF THE AMERICAS

WHO Director-General, Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, support to generics policies

Dr Brundtland, accompanied by Dr Jonathan Quick and Dr Germán Velásquez, visited Brasilia from 2 to 4 April. The Director-General addressed the Brazilian Parliamentary Commission on the issue of National Drug Policies and generic medicines. In her speech the DG said that “In the implementation of National Drug Policies, recommended by WHO, several countries today are promoting two major policy lines: the first is fundamental and concerns the promotion of essential drugs as the best approach from the health viewpoint, and this is supplemented by promoting the use of quality generic drugs as an important strategy to promote both affordability and access”.

“In terms of health sector reforms (also said the DG), promoting generics can help meet the objectives of reforms by improving affordability, reducing cost, increasing choice and helping to rationalise both the selection and use of pharmaceuticals.”

Referring to the “Bolar provision” the DG stated that WHO is in favour of so-called “early workings” of patented drugs for generic manufacturers, to encourage competition; (...) This includes the use of patented drugs for research and testing, which necessitates prompt registration and early production of generic drugs. Countries with variations of early workings provisions include Argentina, Australia, Canada, Hungary, Israel and the USA.