[e-drug] Ensuring Innovation for Neglected Diseases - London 8 June

["Mai Do" <Mai.DO@paris.msf.org>]

E-DRUG: Ensuring Innovation for Neglected Diseases - London 8 June
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[more details about the programme of this MSF conference announced earlier in E-drug; WB]

Conference announcement
Ensuring Innovation for Neglected Diseases
London, 8 June 2005

AIDS, Malaria, TB and tropical diseases continue to kill millions, but there are few medicines in development to tackle these age-old killers. HIV/AIDS has benefited from significant medical innovation, but the medicines are developed in the West, for the West: the lack of tools adapted for the developing world is a major challenge to scaling up treatment. Neglected diseases, which collectively continue to claim millions of lives every year, have received even less attention.

A number of new initiatives have been established to tackle the problem in the last few years. Political commitments have been made, and a range of solutions proposed to ensure that diagnostics and drugs and vaccines are developed for the developing world.

In the shadow of the G8, Midecins Sans Frontihres will hold a conference in London to discuss these issues. The conference will bring together policy makers, academics, public and private sector actors and health care workers in the developing world, to develop discussion around four broad themes:

(1) Setting priorities: who and how?
(2) Meeting the needs: a public or private responsibility?
(3) Current initiatives: opportunities and constraints
(4) The way forward

We hope very much that you will be able to attend. Please find below the provisionnal agenda.

Venue:
The meeting will take place at:
HMS President - Victoria Embankment
London, United Kingdom
from 08:30 to 18:30

Please note that there is no specific grant for this meeting, and most participants will be expected to cover their own travel expenses.

Participation is limited and there is no registration fee. To register for the conference send a message to Ms Mai Do in Paris at mdo@paris.msf.org (+ 33 1 4021 2825) with the following information:

Name:
Title:
Affiliation:
Postal address:
Country:
Telephone:
Fax:
E-mail:
Website:


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Midecins Sans Frontihres (MSF) Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines

International Conference on Ensuring Innovation for Neglected Diseases

8 June 2005, from 8:30 to 18:30
at
HMS President - Victoria Embankment
London, United Kingdom

Provisional Agenda

08:30- 09:00 Registration

09:00-09:30 Welcoming Address
Mr. Jean-Michel Piedagnel, Executive Director, Midecins Sans Frontihres
(MSF), United Kingdom

Opening Remarks
Dr. Karim Laouabdia, Director, Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines,
MSF, Switzerland

09:30-11:00 Panel 1
Identifying needs and setting priorities
Chair Dr. Monique Wasunna, Director, Centre for Clinical Research, Kenya
Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), Kenya

Panel Overview
AIDS is a neglected disease  R&D needs to address the global AIDS crisis
Dr. Jim Kim, Director, HIV/AIDS Department, World Health Organization,
Switzerland

Patients needs driven R&D agenda
7 AIDS & TB
Ms. Marta Darder, MSF, South Africa
7 Leishmaniasis
Prof. Shyam Sundar, Institute of Medical Sciences, India

International mechanisms to create markets for public goods
Mr. James Love, Director, Consumer Project on Technology, USA

Setting research priorities in the EU to address the needs of neglected
patients
Dr. Hans Hogerzeil, Director, Medicines Policy and Standards, World Health
Organization, Switzerland (invited)


11:00-11:15 Coffee/Tea Break


11:15-13:00 Panel 2
Meeting the needs - a public or private responsibility?
Chair Ms. Sakiko Fukuda Parr, John F Kennedy School of Government, Harvard
University, United States

Panel Overview
Sir John Sulston, Founding Director of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute,
Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine 2002, United Kingdom

The European Union approach to address R&D needs for neglected diseases
Dr. Octavi Quintana-Trias, EU Director of Health Directorate, DG Research,
Belgium

Strategies for addressing the needs. How are priorities set at the Gates
Foundation?
Representative of the Gates Foundation, United States (invited)

Private sector strategy (How does private sector address priorities and set
their agendas?)
Dr. Paul Herrling, Head of Corporate Research, Novartis, Switzerland


13:00-14:30 Lunch Break


14:30-16:00 Panel 3
Health needs driven R&D  opportunities and constraints of present
initiatives
Chair Dr. Catherine Hodgkin, Director Development Policy and Practice,
KIT Royal Tropical Institute, The Netherlands

Panel Overview
Innovation in the laboratory  how to develop things people really need
(Setting the problems of access to drugs on practical and political sides,
and how we can address these issues)
Dr. Helen Lee, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

Global Alliance for TB Drug Development
Dr. Maria Freire, CEO, Global Alliance for TB Drug Development, United
States

Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi)
Dr. Bernard Picoul, Executive Director, DNDi, Switzerland

Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND Diagnostics)
Dr. Giorgio Roscigno, CEO, FIND Diagnostics, Switzerland

International Partnership for Microbicides (IPM)
Dr. Paul Coplan, Executive Director for Regulatory and Clinical Affairs ,
IPM, United States

Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV)
Dr. Chris Hentschel, CEO, MMV, Switzerland


16:00-16:15 Coffee/Tea Break


16:15-18:00 Panel 4
New mechanisms to support R&D for neglected diseases
Chair: Ellen t Hoen, Director Policy Advocacy and Research, Campaign for
Access to Essential Medicines, MSF, France

Panel Overview
Dr. Graham Dukes, University of Oslo, Norway

The policy-reality mismatch: proposals for change
Dr Mary Moran, London School of Economics and Political Sciences, United
Kingdom

Cost of R&D - how much money is needed to address the current need.
Mr. Andrew Farlow, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, United
Kingdom

WHO Commission on IPRs, Innovation and Public Health
Dr. Tomris T|rmen, Representative of the Director General,
World Health Organization, Switzerland (invited)

The UK Government proposals for the G8 to tackle R&D for neglected diseases
To be confirmed

18:00-18:30 Conclusions
Dr. Rowan Gillies, President Midecins Sans Frontihres, International
Council, Switzerland