MOREPRESS RELEASE
EMBARGO:  NOT FOR PUBLICATION UNTIL
1800 GMT 18 MARCH 2001
PRESS/213
16 March 2001
(01-1297)
WHO, WTO SECRETARIATS TO HOLD WORKSHOP ON AFFORDABLE DRUGS*
A workshop on how to improve poor countries’ access to essential drugs is to be convened by
the World Health Organization and World Trade Organization secretariats in early April.
The Norwegian Foreign Affairs Ministry is hosting the workshop, which is on “Differential
Pricing and Financing of Essential Drugs”, and will be held at Høsbjør, Norway from 8 to 11 April2001. The Global Health Council, a broad-based US non-government organization in the health-care
field, is handling the event’s organization.
The workshop will be a meeting of experts, not an intergovernmental conference. It will
provide an opportunity for the experts to exchange views on an important subject that has received a
considerable amount of public attention. It will explore how to achieve public health objectives within
the framework of WTO trade and intellectual property rules.
It will look at the full range of obstacles that developing countries face in obtaining essential
drugs, both patented and generic. A main focus will be on the questions of differential pricing and
financing.
Differential pricing — sometimes called “tiered” or “equity” pricing — means charging lower
prices in poorer countries.
The workshop will explore the conditions that would provide a win-win situation — one that
would benefit everyone involved.
Among the questions that will be examined in detail are how to prevent low-priced drugs
from leaking back from poor countries to rich ones.
                                                     
* Joint WTO-WHO-Norwegian Foreign Ministry-Global Health Council press releasePRESS/213
Page 2
On the financing side, the question is how much is needed to purchase essential drugs through
international and domestic sources, and how it can be raised.
The workshop will bring together about 50 experts from industrialized and developing
countries. They will come from research-based and generic manufacturers, governments,intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental or ganizations concerned with international health
and consumer rights, and academics and consultants who are expert in drugs, financing, pricing or
trade policy. The workshop is not expected to produce pledges or joint commitments.
A press statement summarizing the main points of  discussion will be issued immediately after
the workshop. Documents commissioned and presented in the workshop will also be publicly
available, along with  a jointly published WHO-WTO secretariat report of the workshop, in May 2001.
The workshop itself will be closed to the media, but journalists who would like more information
about the issues discussed are welcome to contact:
• WTO, Geneva — Peter Ungphakorn: tel (41-22) 739 54 12, email peter.ungphakorn@wto.org
• WHO, Geneva — Jon Liden: tel (41-22) 791 39 82, email lidenj@who.int; and Gregory Hartl: tel
(41-22) 791 44 58, email hartlg@who.int
• Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Oslo — Jon Mørland: tel (47) 22 24 39 11,
email jon@mfa.no
• Global Health Council, Washington DC — Mary Partlow: tel (1-202) 833 5900;
email media@globalhealth.org
END