The WHO Executive Board will discuss global health priorities this week, including substandard and falsified medical products, with key implications for public pharmaceutical initiatives
For the next week, part of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) members are taking part in an Executive Board meeting in Geneva to set the agenda (and at least some of the tone) for the World Health Assembly announced for May. One of the topics members are going to discuss is the monitoring and control of substandard and falsified medical products. While this may seem like a routine matter, it carries significant implications for access to medicines.
Critics warn that, under the guise of fighting unsafe medical products, pharmaceutical corporations could gain even more influence over global health policies, discrediting generic drug manufacturers and public pharmaceutical initiatives. During a panel facilitated by the Geneva Global Health Hub (G2H2) and the People’s Health Movement (PHM) ahead of the Executive Board, activists and experts outlined how this strategy has been used before, distorting technical work in the field.
The reports being presented to the Executive Board reinforce concerns that this scenario could happen again. WHO members are being asked to reconsider their existing framework on substandard medicines in order to “benefit from more relevant technical expertise” and “better collaboration with external stakeholders.” However, this “technical expertise” refers to industry representatives rather than right to health proponents. The reports explicitly state that the pharmaceutical industry has “much to offer” in combating substandard products while only briefly acknowledging potential conflicts of interest.
Health activists warn that, without proper safeguards, this could allow pharmaceutical corporations to label good-quality generics and publicly produced medicines as substandard, protecting profits at the expense of access to essential medical products. “We urge that any stakeholder engagement includes all relevant actors, including generics manufacturers, public pharma entities, and CSOs advocating for equitable access to medicines–not only Big Pharma,” PHM stated in its Executive Board 156 brief.
More from Big Pharma, less from grassroots networks?
The debate over changing WHO’s existing mechanisms for monitoring substandard and falsified medicines is unfolding at a time when civil society and grassroots health organizations are finding it increasingly difficult to participate in WHO debates. Although WHO remains a multilateral organization, the lack of financial contributions from countries has made it vulnerable to private interests. With member states keeping their flexible donations low, WHO has had to accept funding from philanthrocapitalist donors, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, raising concerns about undue influence over its priorities.
At the same time, the space for independent voices at WHO meetings is shrinking. Fewer accreditations are being granted to grassroots organizations, and opportunities to address delegates in general discussions are limited. Individual statements from civil society organizations at WHO meetings are now restricted to barely over 100 words–nowhere near enough to challenge an entire industry’s influence over global health policy.
“As WHO comes under attack again, corporate-free NGOs such as IBFAN can help explain WHO’s relevance and why its independence, integrity, and trustworthiness must be protected from political and commercial influence from health-harming industries,” the International Baby Food Action Network stated. “No single country could ever be trusted to defend the health needs of all countries, as WHO is constitutionally mandated to do.”
The Executive Board debates are taking place in the shadow of the recent announcement that the United States will be leaving the WHO under the new Trump presidency. The prospect of losing a significant portion of its funding has fueled concerns that WHO could become even more vulnerable to private interests.
People’s Health Dispatch is a fortnightly bulletin published by the People’s Health Movement and Peoples Dispatch. For more articles and to subscribe to People’s Health Dispatch, click here.
