Asia Health Forum 2005

Revision as of 11:07, 6 May 2005

25-27 April, 2005, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang

This meeting was organised by Health Action International Asia Pacific (HAIAP) one of organisations that establishing the People's Health Movement and co-sponsored the first People's Health Assembly.

It brought together health activists from Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.

Topics discussed included:

• Revitalizing Primary Health Care,
• The Impact of Trade Agreements, Tariffs and Treaties on Health and Pharmaceuticals (including the proposal for a New Global R&D Treaty),
• Problems of medicines use in the region (including promotion, counterfeit drugs and consumer and health professional education),
• New Technologies and Health, (including biotechnology, E-health and IVF),
• Disaster Management, and
• Expanding HAIAP activities into China and the Pacific.

In particular, given the problems with respect to access to affordable drugs caused by TRIPS & TRIPS Plus trade agreements, support was given for a New Global R&D Treaty, details of which can be found at:
http://www.cptech.org/workingdrafts/rndtreaty.html

A letter supporting the proposed new R&D treaty has been sent to all Members of the WHO Executive Board (where Ms J. Halton is Australia's delegate) as well as to the WHO Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and Public Health (CIPIH):
http://www.who.int/intellectualproperty/en/

Following the Forum, an E-mail has also been sent to Dr. Ruth Lopert (DoHA) specifically asking that Australia support the proposed R&D treaty at the World Health Assembly or, if they cannot, to provide reasons and alternative proposals to address the problems in our region caused by recent trade agreements.

Finally, presentations on the Forum topics are available by request to my email address.

Dr. Ken Harvey