RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT AND NEW MEDICINES

That this House is aware that the World Health Organisation (WHO) is shortly to discuss reforms of the research and development of medicines worldwide; notes that examples of failures in medicine include lack of new treatments for conditions such as tuberculosis and other so-called diseases of poverty, and that those suffering life threatening conditions like cancer being unable to afford the treatments needed to survive; and further notes the WHO has created a consultative export group (CEG) whose remit is to prepare a new international agreement which will create alternatives to market-only based incentives for pharmaceutical companies to produce new medicines, prioritise health research according to need rather than profit and establish a pooled fund for research and development to be financed by a levy of 0.01 per cent of gross domestic product to develop new treatments.