PRESS RELEASE: Council on the Economics of Health For All issues brief on equitable health innovation

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Press Release

Council on the Economics of Health For All issues brief on equitable health innovation

Leading economists and health experts call for a health innovation ecosystem governed by “the common good”

Geneva, 9 June, 2021 -- The WHO Council on the Economics of Health for All, which comprises leading economists and health experts from across the globe, today called on governments, the scientific and medical community and private sector leaders to re-design the health innovation ecosystem toward delivering health technologies for the common good.

In the Council’s first brief, its members called on the public and private sectors to work collaboratively to deliver needed vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics, and other essential health supplies that are available equitably to those who can benefit.

The Council Brief recommends both immediate and long-term action, urging all stakeholders to work towards creating a health innovation ecosystem characterized by purpose-driven and symbiotic public-private partnerships that put the common good front and center.

“Mobilizing money to throw at solutions that fail to address the underlying causes of longstanding structural problems will not be sufficient,” according to the Council Brief. “We all must look forward towards re-imagining health innovation as part of a new economic ecosystem that can deliver Health for All.”

The Council has made clear that just patching up the existing system will not work. Deep change is needed on how intellectual property rights are governed to drive collective intelligence, how corporate governance is structured, and how the benefits of public investments are shared to avoid the current dynamic of sharing risks but privatizing rewards.

To build an inclusive end-to-end health innovation ecosystem able to deliver the appropriate medical technologies required to achieve Health for All equitably, the following building blocks are critical:

In the short-term, the Council, in its brief, adds its voice to the growing calls for urgent action in four areas:

The Council’s brief came ahead of the G7 Leaders' Summit under the U.K.’s Presidency, which aims to build back better from the COVID-19 pandemic, including by strengthening resilience against future pandemics; and following the Seventy-fourth World Health Assembly and the G20 Global Health Summit co-hosted by Italy and the EU earlier this month.

The Council, which was established by the World Health Organization in November 2020, is chaired by noted economist Professor Mariana Mazzucato, Professor of the Economics of Innovation and Public Value and Founding Director in the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose at University College London.

Its patron is H.E. Sanna Marin, Prime Minister of Finland.

In addition to Professor Mazzucato, members of the council are Professor Senait Fisseha, Professor Jayati Ghosh, Vanessa Huang, Professor Stephanie Kelton, Professor Ilona Kickbusch, Dr Zélia Maria Profeta da Luz, Kate Raworth and Dame Marilyn Waring. Dr Vera Songwe will join as a special guest.

Inaugural council member Linah K Mohohlo, the former Governor of the Bank of Botswana (1999-2016), passed away on 1 June 2021.

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