Statement 21 May 2010

World Health Assembly on millennium development goals

By IFPMA
Downloads
Statement
Share
Topics

UN Millennium Development Goals

Statement by Mario Ottiglio, Advocacy & External Relations Manager, IFPMA, to the 63rd World
Health Assembly under Agenda item 11.4, Monitoring the Achievement of the UN MDGs

Honorable Ministers, Your Excellencies, Madame Director General, Ladies and Gentlemen, The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) represents the global R&D pharmaceutical industry, whose primary contribution to global health is the development of innovative medicines and vaccines.

Mr. Chairman, we reaffirm the innovative pharmaceutical industry’s commitment to help achieve the MDGs, especially 4, 5, 6 and 8. While IFPMA has documented contributions toward all of the health-related MDGs, we highlight Goal 8, to “develop a global partnership for development” and its Target 8e. Since the inception of the MDGs in 2000, IFPMA members have made available nearly USD 10 billion-worth of health assistance for access and capacity building in developing countries. Importantly, our contributions enable the leveraging of emerging and developing country governments’ resources, as well as leveraging the substantial inputs from external donors.

IFPMA Members represent collectively the third largest funder of R&D for diseases of the developing world and, increasingly, companies share their compound libraries and scientific acumen with research partners, including those in developing countries. While the number of R&D projects our members are involved in to address the TDR 10 priority diseases has increased substantially, from 32 in 2005 to 75 in 2009, this effort too is increasingly collaborative – our members now work with specialized Product Development Partnerships in about two-thirds of such projects, compared to around half the projects in 2005.

In addition to discovering and developing groundbreaking and improved medicines and vaccines, IFPMA companies support a wide range of access initiatives around the world. IFPMA has been producing an extensive inventory of projects in an annual publication aimed to highlight the crucial contributions of partner organizations in industry projects, to stimulate member firms to do even more, and to help members to avoid duplication of efforts by demonstrating the scope of activities underway. While the first edition in 2003 documented 36 partnership programs, the 2010 edition contains no less than 213, further confirming industry’s substantial and growing commitment to help achieve the MDGs and other important global health goals.

This is part of a long-term effort. We can be encouraged by the fact that our industry has developing world health projects which have been sustained through economic downturns in  the past and through consolidation within our industry. We are conscious that, as one sector of private industry, we cannot do this alone. We do need to make clear priorities, recognizing that no one of us can do everything. We must build on the foundations of MDG actions to date, and move forward to explore new initiatives and actions designed to address some of the unmet needs in this area. In this light, we stand ready to play our part in contributing to the WHO’s Global Strategy and Plan of Action.

We shall continue to provide to the global community products from our research and development, access initiatives to enable uptake of these, as well as technical and scientific capacity-building and educational programs.

Geneva, 21 May 2010

About IFPMA

The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) represents over 90 innovative pharmaceutical companies and associations around the world. Our industry’s almost three million employees discover, develop, and deliver medicines and vaccines that advance global health. Based in Geneva, IFPMA has official relations with the United Nations and contributes industry expertise to help the global health community improve the lives of people everywhere. For more information, visit ifpma.org.

Learn more

Media Contact

Elliot Dunster
Top