GENEVA, 28 May 2006 - The World Health Organisation's member states on Saturday agreed to launch talks on boosting research on "neglected" diseases, such as malaria and tuberculosis, after deciding that the structure of the pharmaceutical industry means that poor nations are disadvantaged.
The annual assembly of the 192-nation WHO backed efforts spearheaded by Brazil and Kenya to step up the fight against diseases which hit developing countries hardest.
The assembly accepted a resolution which called on member states to "secure enhanced and sustainable funding for developing and making accessible products to address diseases that disproportionately affect developing countries".
Member states should come up with a "global strategy and plan of action" in time for the next WHO assembly in May 2007, the resolution said.
Saturday's move by the WHO's member states was part of the wider debate on the vexed issue of drugs patents and research funding, which has provoked disputes at past meetings of the U.N. health agency.
Critics charge that the current system, hingeing on patents and drug pricing to finance research and development (R&D), leaves huge health needs unmet.
"Intellectual property rights are an important incentive for the development of new health-care products", the resolution said.
"However...this incentive alone does not meet the need for development of new products to fight diseases where the potential paying market is small or uncertain."
"New thinking" is needed, the resolution said.
Activists hailed Saturday's decision.
"For the first time, were starting to see action that begins to mirror the magnitude of the problems and needs that we witness everyday in our field programs", said Tido von Schoen-Angerer, of the international medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières.
"This is a crucial first step that will help us put in place new ways of stimulating R&D for health problems that so far industry has ignored", he added.
MSF said that only 21 of the 1,556 drugs brought onto the global market from 1975-2004 were destined to fight "neglected" diseases.
Last month, a report by former Swiss President Ruth Dreifuss which was commissioned by the WHO pointed to flaws in the current system of research, which steers investment towards areas of highest profitability.
The report, which was formally welcomed by the assembly on Saturday, also called on the pharmaceutical industry to slash the price of drugs sold in developing countries - something companies insist they have already done in many cases.
For the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations, the price and patent issue falls outside the mandate of the WHO and should instead be discussed only at the World Trade Organisation.
The latter adopted new rules in 2003 allowing poor countries to import cheap copies of patented drugs to tackle health crises, but no government has so far taken advantage of them.
In previous years, rich countries which are home to the world's top pharmaceutical firms have sparred with poor nations which say their concerns are sidelined and want more flexibility to fight epidemics cheaply.
But campaigners said that such countries - including the United States and Switzerland - had been "constructive and positive" at the WHO assembly this time.
