The American Medical Student Association (AMSA), the nation’s oldest and largest, independent association for physicians-in-training, has been selected to host the 62nd General Assembly of the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA) in March 2013, the world’s largest gathering of medical students. More than 2,500 physicians-in-training from more than 100 countries are expected to attend the event, which will be held in Washington, D.C., March 5-15, 2013. AMSA’s Annual Convention will be held March 14-17, 2013.
“The General Assembly is going to be an amazing opportunity for the world’s future physicians to come together on one stage, in the powerful city of Washington D.C., to champion health access, health equality and the social determinants of health for our global citizens,” says Danielle Salovich, AMSA national president, 2011-2012. “As we continue to fight for women’s health rights, access to medicines across the globe and healthcare for all, there has never been a more important time for medical students to join together.”
The theme of the meeting will be AMSA hopes to empower attendees and provide them with the tools they need to improve health care by using their voice to shape the policies that influence the medical profession. Advocacy has increasingly been recognized as a core element of medical professionalism. Due to their role in society and the unique features of the doctor-patient relationship, physicians and physicians-in-training are uniquely suited to advocate with and for patients.
“As part of the General Assembly, thousands of medical students will rally for social justice in the U.S. health care system and across the globe,” says Elizabeth Wiley, JD, MPH, and AMSA president-elect. “We are also looking forward to the hands-on workshops for attendees to gain advocacy training surrounding specific topics of interest: social determinants of health, medical professionalism and conflict of interest, patient safety, mental health and more.”
As a unique post General Assembly option, delegates will have the opportunity to attend AMSA-USA’s 63rd Annual Convention in Washington, D.C. Before the meeting, delegates may travel to NYC, Boston or Philadelphia.
AMSA joined IFMSA and became the United States’ National Member Organization (NMO) in 2008. The last IFMSA General Assembly held in the United States was more than 35 years ago.
Highlights
The International Federation of Medical Students’ Association (IFMSA), representing more than a million medical students worldwide, strongly condemns the drug company Novartis’ suit against the Indian government for producing cost effective generic drugs. IFMSA expresses its deepest concern that the pharmaceutical industry is suing national states for their attempt to protect its citizens and promote greater access to health. IFMSA believes that the current unequal distribution of essential medicines is unacceptable, and that the human right to health care is unattainable without affordable access to essential medicines.
Main text
India is considered as the pharmacy of the world. Health care systems in low- and middle income-countries and NGO’s are dependent on India’s production of cheaper cost effective, generic drugs. India has been able to be a key manufacturer and supplier for medicines around the globe due to a strong constitution protecting intellectual properties surrounding health and public health.
In 2005 India started granting patents according to the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). This led to drug companies being able to patent drugs in India. However, the Indian Patents Act states that only true medical innovations will be granted patents. Section 3(d) further states that if a drug is based on an already existing compound it has to show an improved effect over the existing ones to grant a patent. This is to avoid ever-greening, a process in which drug companies extend the 20-year patent by making minor alterations and re-brand a drug. Backed by Section 3(d) in the Indian Patents Act, Novartis was denied patent for the leukemia drug imatinib mesylate (marketed as Gleevec) in 2006. Thus, Novartis filled legal claims to the Madras High court, one to appeal the rejection on the patent and secondly to have Section 3(d) declared contrary to the TRIPS agreement and to the Indian Constitution. Both claims failed.
In August 2009, Novartis approached the Supreme Court of India with a new case, to challenge the interpretation and application of Section 3(d) by Indian courts and patent offices. The final arguments are due to start before the Supreme Court of March 28th, 2012.
The IFMSA thinks that the outcome of this case will have a pivotal impact on the availability of drugs not only in India, but also in the world. As the one of the globe’s leading generic manufacturers, India is largely understood as the pharmacy of the developing world, and the legal decision taken in this case will have an enormous impact on the ease with which pharmaceutical companies can obtain patents in India. The Novartis case will also serve as critical precedent for other nations in their decisions regarding the implementation of their TRIPS obligations in context of concerns about access to medicines. The affordability and therefore accessibility of many life-saving medications hinges on the outcome of this case.
IFMSA is also deeply concerned that private industry can go to such an extent and sue a sovereign national state for trying to protect the health of its inhabitants. The precedence being set in the aftermath of this case can alter the power distribution between strong corporates and national states, either by stating that economical interests for a company is more important than human safety and health or that the health of the worlds’ population weights heavier than the interests of private companies.
We in IFMSA strongly believe that human health and safety have to be prioritized. Generic production of affordable drugs is crucial for maintaining a minimum of health care service for the worlds’ poorest and thus most vulnerable populations. In our commitment to increasing access to cost effective generic drugs, IFMSA has adopted a Policy on Access to Essential Medicines.
As future doctors and health care leaders, IFMSA asks Novartis to reconsider the possible impact of this decision to global health and thus request they drop their claim against the Government of India.
IFMSA’s position on Essential Medicines
We believe that access to essential medicines is challenged by factors like inadequate infrastructure, lack of primary care which can provide universal health coverage and the lack of skilled workforce in many low- and middle-income countries. Nevertheless, public policies on intellectual property rights and the lack of research on tropical diseases have significant impact on access to medicines, and the IFMSA calls for increased attention towards the actions and considerations which can be taken in order to improve the global access to medicines.
The lack of access to essential medicines calls for a substantial and long-term response. A well-defined needs-driven research and development agenda is needed to assist policy makers, funding agencies and the research community in setting priorities.
The IFMSA, representing 1.2 million medical students worldwide, believes that the current unequal distribution of essential medicines is unacceptable, and that the human right to health care is unattainable without affordable access to essential medicines.
Written by: Roopa Dhatt (IFMSA VPE), Usman Mushtaq (IFMSA LO WHO), Johanne Iversen (NMSA-Norway), Lukas Sveikata (IFMSA LOSO) and Joško Mise (IFMSA SCORA-D)
References:
1. International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations, Policy Statement on Access to Essential Medicines, Adopted: Montreal, Canada, August 2010.
At the end of last month IFMSA attended for the second time in the Rio+20
preparations in UN Headquarters, New York. Fancily called the 3rd UNCSD
Intersessionals. Think Global Initiative Coordinator Mike Eliasz and Liaison
Officer to WHO Usman Mushtaq represented IFMSA in this meeting. This was the
second time Mike attended the Rio+20 intersessionals and a lot of progress have
been made in the negotiations since last time, from not being in the text at all
health probably has its in own chapter. Before we arrived there had been a week
of informal – informal negotiations where civil society groups had been unable
to share the text which required some quick catch up. The negotiations have
also got a bit stuck, the relatively short zero draft has been transformed into a
monstrosity of a text with all the interesting stuff in brackets. From previous
experience with UN negotiations, we can tell you that this is not unusual.
It was frankly sickening to hear governments of certain developed nations trying
to argue there was no such thing as a right to development for other countries
and more scarily a human right to water and sanitation (despite this right being
politically acknowledge already). There are also concerns about efforts address
population growth not being undertaken in the context of a reproductive rights
agenda. If your more interested in this check out this great petition from children
and youth ensuring the human rights are incorporated into the Sustainable
Development agenda insert link
At the meeting what was most interesting was getting to chat informally with
various UN officials about what was going to happen at Rio and where it fitted
into the post 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) agenda. As one
official put it ‘Rio is now just posturing for post 2015’ all the UN agencies are
trying to make sure there area of interest is on the Agenda and also they have a
specifically defined area of work. While Usman tried to get hold of the negotiators
from EU, Switzerland and Norway who mainly proposed the health language in the text,
Mike noticed that all countries positions on things were based purely on self-interest;
“I was hearing about Mexico and the Philippines pushing social protection for migrants.
The naïve and idealistic person that I am loved this idea, but the reason for Mexico and
the Philippines pushing this is that their economies are entirely dependent on
remittances from expatriates overseas, therefore the more protection migrants
have the more remittances they can send home. It is a self-interested policy
but also worthwhile in its own right, I came to the realisation all things in
International Relations need framing in individual countries self-interest.”
In the blog from last meeting, Mike wrote stated that one of the most likely
outcomes of the summit was Sustainable Development Goals but as with all
UN meetings we probably now have a roadmap to agreeing to Sustainable
Development Goals. (SDGs) This also will occur under the General Assembly,
many countries were annoyed by the work of certain UN agencies to prepare
goals to be fostered on countries at the end of the conference. (I should probably
add that the Millienium Development Goals were developed by technocrats and
introduced late in the night at negotiations so governments had no say in their
development).
With the SDGs there are a number of opinions on these from Governments as to
what form they should take. You can see some of the ideas below:
• We have stand alone SDGs before 2015
• The SDGs are released at the same time as the replacement to the MDGs
post 2015 and they are complementary to each other
• The MDGs are replaced by SDGs altogether.
As the IFMSA we fit somewhere in between two major groupings in the Rio
process the Major Group on Children and Youth and the NGO group(Health
cluster). Whilst we predominantly work on health issues we have also been
involved in supporting wider youth participation and engagement. It was in this
context Mike got to deliver a speech on behalf of the Children and Youth group
to the Bureau on youth participation, human rights and youth employment.
The group on Children and Youth are doing some amazing work and are by
far the most organised grouping at Rio. In particular check out the work on an
ombudsperson for future generations really inspiring stuff, will hope that there
is an element of accountability for future generations within the UN system.
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The day after the intersessional, we took the bus to Washington DC for a
meeting with the Pan American Health Organizations (PAHO). PAHO is the WHO
regional office for America We introduced our work and discussed around were
IFMSA and PAHO could best collaborate. The regional office has long focused
on Sustainable Development and Health interlinkages, they released a tool kit
with a website specifically on the Rio process. PAHO is going to be one of the
biggest actors from the health community in Rio this June, and they are very
willing to support and include IFMSA in their activities. We have been even
offered to collaborate on a joint side event. The 5 hour bus trip from New York to
Washington, paid well off and IFMSA gained another strategic partner.
In terms of next steps for IFMSA:
• Launch our campaign toolkit which will facilitate the capacity building
efforts in our own federation and also ensure an advocacy campaign.
• Try to set an example and make our commitments on behalf of IFMSA and
the health sector to sustainable development
• Continue to advocate our stance in the ongoing negotiations, with the 4th
and final intersessional coming up next week.
• Position ourselves for post Rio+20 process
We have come a long way since IFMSA first started to work on Sustainable
Development through the Climate Change negotiations, only this time we are
ahead the process and not behind!
