In May 2003, World Health Organization (WHO) Member States agreed to establish an independent commission to consider the relationship between intellectual property rights, innovation and public health, which would "collect data and proposals from the different actors involved and produce an analysis of intellectual property rights, innovation, and public health, including the question of appropriate funding and incentive mechanisms for the creation of new medicines and other products against diseases that disproportionately affect developing countries". On 3 April 2006 the Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and Public Health presented its report to WHO. Although not dealing specifically with agricultural biotechnologies, the report is relevant because of the parallels with development of improved agricultural products for developing countries e.g. through use of biotechnology. See http://www.who.int/intellectualproperty/en/ (in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish) or contact [email protected] for more information.

18/04/2006