HL Deb 08 May 2001 vol 625 cc170-1WA
Baroness Ashton of Upholland

asked Her Majesty's Government:

When the Performance and Innovation Unit's report on global health will be published [HL2104]

Baroness Jay of Paddington

The PIU reportTackling the Diseases of Poverty: A package to meet the Okinawa/Millennium Targets for HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is published today. The report sets out a range of options for tackling these three devastating diseases in developing countries as a contribution both to the UK Government's thinking and to the international debate.

The report calls for a comprehensive global strategy to improve and expand coverage of health systems and health promotion; make affordable for those that need them vaccines, drugs, and other products to prevent and treat the diseases; and provide incentives for research into new, more effective health products.

The PIU report proposes a series of measures including:

  • a new global fund for health to finance the purchase of existing health products to tackle the three diseases, substantially scaling up the provision of these products to those most in need but least able to afford them;
  • Binding advance purchase commitment to purchase new, more effective products as they become available, strengthening incentives to step up investment in Ramp;D;
  • a framework for tiered pricing and greater local production of patented products under voluntary licences to improve affordability; and clarification of the flexibilities in intellectual property protection under the WTO TRIPS agreement;
  • targeted support including tax credits and public-private partnerships for R&D, and a new platform for clinincal trials of new drugs and vaccines; and a scaled-up and better co-ordinated global partnership to halt and reverse the spread of disease.

The report estimates that 50 million lives could be saved over the next 20 years if the global effort to tackle these diseases was better resourced and co-ordinated.

The UK is already fully committed to playing its part in a greater and better co-ordinated international effort to tackle commuicable diseases in the developing world. The ideas in the PIU report will help the UK pursue this agenda internationally at the highest level.

Copies have been placed in the House Library.