Open Letter Supporting Italy’s Proposed Resolution on Improving the Transparency of Markets for Drugs, Vaccines and other Health-related Technologies
On March 6, 2019, 83 civil society organizations and 20 individuals asked delegates to the World Health Assembly (WHA) to support a proposed resolution on “Improving the transparency of markets for drugs, vaccines and other health-related technologies.” A copy of the open letter is available below, and also as a PDF file.
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For context, on February 1, 2019, the government of Italy submitted the text of draft resolution to the WHO, with a cover letter noting the aim of providing an “authoritative mandate to strengthen WHO’s technical work on the transparency of the costs of research and development and the transparency of prices” for discussion under agenda item 11.7 – Addressing the global shortage of, and access to, medicines and vaccines, during the 72nd session of the World Health Assembly (WHA) in May 2019.
A PDF copy of the letter from Dr. Giulia Grillo, Italy’s Minister of Health, and the draft resolution are attached here:
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The Italian proposal follows a long line of recommendations for greater transparency of the value chain for medical technologies, including the many outlined here: