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NOORDWIJK MEDICINES AGENDA - Changing the Face of Innovation
Draft programme of the High-Level Forum
Coherence for Health: Innovation for New Medicines for Infectious Diseases (publication)
The OECD High Level Forum on Medicines for Neglected and Emerging Infectious Disease: Policy Coherence to Enhance their Availability (HLF) was organised in June 2007 in Noordwijk, the Netherlands in collaboration with the government of the Netherlands.
Improving global health is a shared responsibility. The HLF was attended by high level officials of developed and developing countries, and senior representatives from industry, the scientific community, international and non-governmental organisations who met to contribute a coherent, open agenda for action. The HLF sought to build on and complement international momentum to stimulate innovation and radically accelerate the development and delivery of medicines, vaccines and diagnostics for neglected and emerging infectious diseases that disproportionately affect developing countries. Participants made it clear that many health issues in developing countries cannot and will not be solved by developments in health technologies alone. Nevertheless, such technologies are important and efforts to accelerate innovation and to reduce poverty and its consequences must go hand and hand.
The High Level Forum called upon governments both of OECD and developing countries to demonstrate political leadership and to join with industry, product development partnerships, investors, shareholders, intergovernmental organisations and non-governmental organisations to further intensify collaborative efforts and promote coherent policies to improve the availability of and access to medicines, vaccines and diagnostics for neglected and emerging infectious diseases.
The result of this call to action is the Noordwijk Medicines Agenda which is a summary of the main themes of the OECD High Level Forum on Policy Coherence: Availability of Medicines for Neglected and Emerging Infectious Diseases. It represents a general agreement of participants about the problems, goals, and work that needs to be done in order to improve the availability of medicines for neglected and emerging infectious diseases. The NMA has not been formally endorsed by OECD countries.
The Path to New Medicines
This article is a follow up on the discussions had a Noordwijk-aan-Zee about how to accelerate R&D in the neglected and emerging infectious diseases.
Access to Essential Medicines: A Global Sickness (video; long version)
OECD Secretary-General, Angel Gurría, says infectious diseases exact heavy human, social and economic costs and urges immediate action to improve healthcare worldwide. To see a shorter version of this video click here.
Coherence for Health: Innovation for New Medicines for Infectious Diseases (April 2009). This book looks at ways of improving the availability of medicines for infectious diseases through strengthened coherence in health, trade, science and technology, development co-operation and finance. This publication is an important contribution to enhancing policy coherence for development in the health sector.
Further work in this area: A joint OECD/International AIDS Vaccine innitiative (IAVI) was held in 2007 at the OECD Headquarters in Paris. A consultation with governments of policies to promote R&D in AIDS.
For further information on the HLF contact: stidcdforum@oecd.org.
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