U.S. STATEMENT ON PANDEMIC-INFLUENZA PREPAREDNESS:  SHARING OF INFLUENZA VACCINES AND ACCESS TO VACCINES AND OTHER BENEFITS

World Health Assembly Agenda Item 12.1

As delivered by Assistant Secretary for Health Dr. John O. Agwunobi
Member of the U.S. Delegation to the World Health Assembly

Geneva
May 23, 2007

While the world engages in preparations for a possible global pandemic, no nation can go it alone and all nations must cooperate.  As the late Dr. J.W. Lee reminded us in the remarks he had prepared to deliver to this Assembly before his unfortunate death exactly one year ago, “We are – and we must remain – alert to every hint that the virus may be changing its behavior.”  All nations have a responsibility under the revised International Health Regulations (IHRs) to share data and virus samples on a timely basis and without preconditions.  The United States wishes to be clear that our view is that withholding influenza viruses from the Global Influenza Surveillance Network greatly threatens global public health, and will violate the legal obligations we have all agreed to undertake through our adherence to the IHRs.

The United States is pleased the resolution before us makes clear Member States must continue to share specimens and viruses with WHO Collaborating Centers to ensure the continuance of critical risk-assessment and response activities.  We understand such response activities include the development and production of pandemic-influenza vaccines.

While we acknowledge the preambular language on each State’s sovereign rights over its biological resources, all nations need to recognize the distinctive nature of influenza viruses.  Viruses with pandemic potential represent a global health threat.  Influenza viruses spread freely across international borders through the movement of people and animals.  Our goal is not to conserve such influenza viruses for sustainable use, but to combat them and the sickness and death that they cause.  

This resolution asks the Director-General to commission an expert report on the potential patent issues related to influenza viruses and their genes.  The United States urges the Director-General to collaborate closely with other international organizations with expertise in intellectual property rights, particularly the World Intellectual Property Organization and the World Trade Organization, to address any issues related to intellectual property rights that could arise in the context of the Global Influenza Surveillance Network.

The United States has always strongly supported the efforts undertaken by the World Health Organization to increase the availability of seasonal and pandemic influenza vaccine around the world, and we continue to do so.  We urge all other Member States to provide similar support, corresponding to their available resources.  We look forward to further engagement with Member States and the WHO in implementing this resolution, and we expect to continue to see the free flow of influenza virus samples through the Global Influenza Surveillance Network throughout the period of the work of the interdisciplinary working group, the intergovernmental meeting to follow, and beyond.

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