AEI claims WHO R&D policy would "harm those it aims to assist"

USA-based think-tank, the American Enterprise Institute, has urged the World Health Organization to turn away from "greater state and bureaucratic control of R&D," on the grounds that these will fail to produce the results that its advocates hope for. The AEI also warns that the treaty under discussion at the World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland, in the week starting May 22, could "end up harming those it aims to assist."

The WHO policy aims to develop remedies for what have been termed "neglected diseases" and "diseases of poverty." The latter include tuberculosis, malaria, African typanosomiasis, dengue, leishmaniaisis, shistosomiasis, Chagas disease, leprosy, lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis.

The AEI warns that removing private innovation by weakening intellectual property rights and price control would mean removing most innovation. Instead, the think-tank proposes public-private partnerships, where governments are unwilling to allow private initiative to operate alone, although it warns that "the history of committees and bureaucracies picking winners is so replete with failure that venturing down this path is extremely risky."