World Health Assembly Meets

The 60th World Health Assembly meeting is taking place this week in Geneva, Switzerland, lead by new WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan. A key focus of the meeting is the importance of being prepared globally with sufficient vaccines for influenza, and dealing with pandemic and avian influenza outbreaks.

In his remarks to the meeting, US HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt relayed the message that the US supports sharing of vaccines and virus samples, and noted the financial support the US has provided for vaccine research and increased vaccine production, as its contribution to preventing pandemics. Sharing of data and scientific cooperation were listed as important principles to a collaborative effort to stop the spread of communicable diseases.

In the rush to come out with the best vaccines first, I wonder how many pharmaceutical companies are really interested in sharing their data and samples? Although the “two heads are better than one” principle is probably true for making and developing new discoveries, the high cost of producing new drugs has made for a very competitive industry where IP is highly protected.