Thiru Balasubramaniam
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thirugeneva.bsky.social
Thiru Balasubramaniam
@thirugeneva.bsky.social
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Highlights of opening address of Dr Supachai Panitchpakdi Director-General Designate, World Trade Organization. Chulalongkorn University, February 2001. @wto.org @who.int
"The announcement of a new Thai government on 18 February 2001 signaled the end of the central role that Dr Supachai has played in previous Thai administrations during the last decade. As the person scheduled to replace Mr Mike Moore as the Director-General of the World Trade Organization in June 2002, he would no doubt have the sympathy of many if he chose to shun publicity during this brief intermission in his public career. It is therefore a tribute to the gravity of the topic of globalization and its implications on access to medicines and an expression of the special affinity that he feels for both the topic and his alma mater, Chulalongkorn University, that Dr Supachai agreed to open this meeting on his first day outside government, even though it meant flying in from his home town of Chiang Mai specifically to do so. “I am happy to be here” he said, “because I think that the issues that you are dealing with are of paramount importance, particularly if we look at the ongoing process of globalization which has become less and less human. I have attended so many international meetings and conferences around the world in the last few years, where I would see demonstrations and protests by people fearing the unknown factor that was born in the wake of the so called globalization interdependence process around the world, be it Seattle, Washington DC, Prague, Melbourne, even here in Chiang Mai, when we had the ADB meeting last year and in Davos, where I would say that the richest and the most powerful gather once every year.”
November 27, 2025 at 3:28 AM
thirugeneva.bsky.social
Network for Monitoring the Impact of Globalization and TRIPS on Access to Medicines, Meeting Report, 19-21 February 2001 Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand @who.int
November 27, 2025 at 3:21 AM
thirugeneva.bsky.social
Draft PABS Annex text - Onscreen version as at 15:30 CET on Friday, 7 November 2025. #IGWG4 @who.int
November 26, 2025 at 7:14 PM
thirugeneva.bsky.social
Draft Programme of Work (PoW) for #IGWG4 apps.who.int/gb/IGWG/pdf_... The public sessions will take place next Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday from 16:45 to 17:15 CET. The extended session with relevant stakeholders (not public) will take place next Wednesday from 11:30 to 13:00 CET. @who.int
November 26, 2025 at 6:14 PM
thirugeneva.bsky.social
Agenda for @who.int #EB158
November 25, 2025 at 4:17 AM
thirugeneva.bsky.social
Draft Concept Note: IGWG November interactive focused informal dialogues @who.int
November 19, 2025 at 9:27 PM
thirugeneva.bsky.social
@who.int Member State information session on the 2025 Prioritization and Realignment process: projected Organizational Impact - 19 Novembe 2025 apps.who.int/gb/mspi/pdf_...
November 18, 2025 at 7:35 PM
thirugeneva.bsky.social
Yannis Natsis, Director, European Social Insurance Platform: "Carrots come at a very high price....how do you negotiate w/ a monopolist?" @politico.eu
November 18, 2025 at 9:23 AM
thirugeneva.bsky.social
Sandra Gallina, Director General, DG SANTE, European Commission to Helen Collis, Health Editor, POLITICO, "I read you every morning." @hcollis.bsky.social @politico.eu
November 18, 2025 at 9:08 AM
thirugeneva.bsky.social
November 17, 2025 at 12:51 AM
thirugeneva.bsky.social
Purple skies in Geneva.
November 14, 2025 at 4:56 AM
thirugeneva.bsky.social
At the @msf.fr Doha+5 event in Geneva on 14 November 2006. Picture here with me are Adrian Otten (WTO), Dalindyebo Shabalala (CIEL), @ellenthoen.bsky.social (MSF at this point in time), and Sangeeta Shashikant (TWN). To her left is Guilherme Patriota (Brazil).
November 14, 2025 at 3:02 AM
thirugeneva.bsky.social
Different vintages of the century. @upenn.edu
"Thiru Balasubramaniam: Besides possessing the longest last name at Penn, this Pi Lam senior is the preeminent mover and shaker in the world of Philo, organizing symposiums as he sips Chablis." John Stephans See track 13 of The Miseducation..., but his real musical talent is best expressed every Sunday momng when he leaves campus to lead a gospel choir.
November 12, 2025 at 5:11 AM
thirugeneva.bsky.social
November 11, 2025 at 5:34 AM
thirugeneva.bsky.social
November 11, 2025 at 5:28 AM
thirugeneva.bsky.social
The latest PABS text (Onscreen version as at 15:30 CET on Friday, 7 November 2025) has 2 references to "licences", 3 references to "licensing" and 10 references to "licenses". @who.int
November 11, 2025 at 4:38 AM
thirugeneva.bsky.social
WTO AGREEMENTS & PUBLIC HEALTH, A joint study by the WHO and the WTO Secretariat (2002). "One such initiative is the Global Fund proposed by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan dedicated to the battle against HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases." www.wto.org/english/res_... @wto.org @who.int
"As the world becomes increasingly integrated, it becomes less and less possible for different policy areas to be handled independently of each other. The inkage between trade and health has been the focus of much debate: real concerns should be dealt with and any misunderstandings should be clarified based on sound evidence and rigorous analysis. We consider this joint study by the WHO and the WTO Secretariat a useful and timely initiative in this regard. It illustrates that there is much common ground between trade and health. Another important message is that health and trade policymakers can benefit from closer cooperation to ensure coherence between their different areas of responsibilities. In both the WHO and the WTO questions of trade and public health feature high on the agenda, and significant advances have been made in the recent past. The endorsement by the international community of the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health is a very visible expression of governments' commitment to ensuring that the rules-based trading system is compatible with public health interests. The multilateral trading system has a lot to contribute to increase global welfare. In addition, the expertise and work of other organizations are needed to find effective solutions. In our common pursuit of sustainable human development, the WTO and the WHO are important partners. We are honoured to present this joint study on WTO Agreements and public health, the first of its kind. It is an encouraging testimony of our good and growing cooperation." "The WHO team was led by Nick Drager and included Robert Beaglehole, Debra Lipson, Zafar Mirza and early input from Matthew Hodge. Information on country health-trade cooperation was kindly provided by Suwit Wibulpolprasert of Thailand's Ministry of Health, and Jake Vellinga of Health Canada. Many WHO staff in Geneva headquarters and six regional offices supplied helpful information and comments at various stages of the report's preparation. We especially thank Orvill Adams, Thiru Balasubramaniam, Douglas Bettcher, William Cocksedge, Sarah England, Dr F.X. Meslin, Julie Milstein, André Prost, Yasuyuki Sahara, Jorgen Schlundt, German Velasquez and Derek Yach for their valuable contributions. WHO's input benefited from the comments of experts around the world, working in government health agencies, academic institutions, and civil society organizations. The WHO team also would like to thank Andrew Cassels, Ann Kern, David Nabarro, Poonam Khetrapal Singh, and Eva Wallstam for their support. The principal coordinator for the WTO contribution was Deputy Director-General Miguel Rodríguez Mendoza with the assistance of Erik Wijkstrom and Alexander Keck. Inputs and comments were provided by Rolf Adlung, John Finn, David Hartridge, Marion Jansen, Pieter Jan Kuijper, Vivien Liu, João Magelhães, Hamid Mamdouh, Gabrielle Marceau, Doaa Abdel Motaal, Laoise Ni Bhriain, Adrian Otten, Gretchen Stanton, Thu-Lang Tran-Wasescha, Peter Ungphakorn, Jayashree Watal and Frank Wolter. With respect to the WTO, this study has been prepared under the Secretariat's own responsibility and is without prejudice to the positions of WTO Members and to their rights and obligations under the WTO."
November 11, 2025 at 1:57 AM
thirugeneva.bsky.social
A Turning Point That Left Millions Behind
By Barton Gellman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 28, 2000
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...
Plus ça change @who.int @bartongellman.bsky.social
"GENEVA -- Raymond V. Gilmartin's private jet touched down at Geneva-Cointrin airport near midnight on March 26. Early next morning, on four hours' sleep, he sped to the hilltop headquarters of the World Health Organization. His name appeared on no calendar, but he was expected. He carried the brief of a $ 350 billion industry on the run. Two years of public censure, with charges of profiteering on history's worst pandemic, had brought the manufacturers of AIDS medicines close to pariah status in U.N. forums. Declarations known as "soft law" threatened the value of their patents. Their reputations as health-givers had suffered as 35 million people with HIV--25 million in Africa--faced death without the drugs that could prolong their lives. Merck, the New Jersey drug giant for which Gilmartin was chairman and chief executive, had begun to compare the stakes with those faced by infant formula makers accused of promoting breast milk substitutes in countries where they did more harm than good. "No matter what Nestle could do or say, they never really managed to get over that slogan that they killed babies," one manager said. Gilmartin had come to WHO Conference Room 7079 to reveal an industry secret. Facing Director General Gro Harlem Brundtland and a panoramic Alpine view, he said that five major pharmaceutical companies had committed in principle to substantial discounts on their AIDS medicines in poor countries. The conditions of their offer, broadly drafted, included burden-sharing by governments and reinforced protection of the industry's patents. Now Gilmartin wanted to know: Would Brundtland care to sponsor the initiative and take a leading role in its announcement? "In the late 1990s, an unexpected synergy between AIDS activists and critics of globalization started eating away at the political framework that supported the boom. AIDS organizers tormented Vice President Gore's presidential campaign and chained themselves to desks in Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky's office, pressing the Clinton administration to stop backing the industry against generic competitors. The slogans of the activists--"Pfizer's Greed Kills," "Death Under Patent," "Medical Apartheid"--sliced into the industry's long-standing efforts "to portray itself as being driven by improving the human condition," said Michael Artinger of Decision Resources, a pharmaceutical research firm. On Dec. 1, 1999, President Clinton announced a new trade and patent policy "flexible enough" that "people in the poorest countries won't have to go without medicine they so desperately need." Pharmaceutical executives anticipated further setbacks at a May 15 gathering of health ministers in Geneva, and at July's international AIDS conference in Durban, South Africa. As U.N. Deputy Secretary General Louise Frechette said in an interview, AIDS had "gone up quite a bit in the cosmic scale of priorities." "Four days later, Bruntland, the WHO director general, gave her second annual speech to the policymaking executive board. Much of it centered on AIDS. "Squarely put, the drugs are in the north and the disease is in the south," Brundtland said. "I wish to invite the pharmaceutical industry to join us in taking a fresh and constructive look at how we can considerably increase access to relevant drugs." A teleconference on Feb. 8 brought high-ranking officers of the six companies into the talks for the first time. Among them were Weg of Bristol-Myers; Glaxo Executive Director James Cochrane; Per Wold-Olsen, Merck president for Europe, Middle East and Africa; Pfizer Senior Vice President Ian C. Read; Boehringer corporate marketing director Riku Rautsola; and Roche's global pharmaceutical chief, William M. Burns. ad_icon To a man, they were frustrated. "We've got to get off the subject of prices!" Burns exploded, speaking from his headquarters in Basel, Switzerland. "Prices are not the issue." At the first mention of prices, lawyers chimed in from speakerphones. They cautioned the executives to steer clear of price-setting, for fear of antitrust violations. But that was not where this conversation was going. Some of the participants, including Cochrane, wanted to take on the industry's critics--above all Bernard Pecoul of the French medical aid group Doctors Without Borders, and James Love of the Consumer Project on Technology in Washington. According to participants, Jeffrey L. Sturchio of Merck and Glaxo's Ben Plumley, public affairs specialists, said that would be a losing battle. The only way to turn perceptions around, Sturchio said, was "to make something affirmative happen," including substantial price cuts. That view was not unanimous. Pfizer's Read registered strong dissent, and Pfizer withdrew."
November 11, 2025 at 1:30 AM
thirugeneva.bsky.social
Go Eagles!
November 11, 2025 at 1:16 AM
thirugeneva.bsky.social
Monday Night Football.
November 11, 2025 at 12:15 AM
thirugeneva.bsky.social
On the subject of tabletop simulations, I would recall the words of Otto Hightower: "We must play the board before us." Team 4 fresquers @unitaid.bsky.social Access Fresque June 2024.
November 10, 2025 at 2:42 PM
thirugeneva.bsky.social
#IGC52 Glossary of Key Terms Related to Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Traditional Cultural Expressions @wipo.int Published on 5 November 2025. @arianna-s.bsky.social @keiwashdc.bsky.social www.wipo.int/edocs/mdocs/... @grahamdutfield.bsky.social
November 9, 2025 at 7:48 PM
thirugeneva.bsky.social
I asked Gemini to render the Meghnad Badh Kavya in Old English in the style of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle but it went Beowulf on me. Still, I had fun.
November 9, 2025 at 5:32 AM
thirugeneva.bsky.social
@nytimes.com reportage from November 21, 1993: "Through two and a half quarters today, Pennyslvania's undefeated and untied season, along with the outright Ivy League championship, appeared destined to be shattered by lowly Cornell."
November 9, 2025 at 4:34 AM
thirugeneva.bsky.social
Nine years ago in @politico.eu Health experts: Global programs 'at risk' under Trump
-- By Helen Collis
11/9/16, 3:11 PM CET
@hcollis.bsky.social @who.int @gavi.org
"Public health experts fear U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s rise could spell funding uncertainty to fight the world’s biggest health threats such as pandemics, superbugs and emergency preparedness. Financial support and engagement with philanthropic and multilateral health agencies “will be very much at risk” under Trump, said Suerie Moon, head of research at the Harvard Global Health Institute and the Global Health Centre, Geneva. The U.S. is the largest contributor to the World Health Organization and the Global Fund to fight infectious diseases. It is the third largest contributor to the global vaccines alliance Gavi. Global health actors like these depend on the commitment from the financial heavyweight in the U.S. to effectively deliver health benefits to those most in need. Trump has said little on global health. But his comments on international institutions such as NATO, and on issues requiring international cooperation like migration, refugees, armed conflict, nuclear weapons, and climate change, worry public health experts. “We can expect a dramatic inward turn of the U.S. policy, with less engagement, little support for global agreements, and certainly less financial generosity towards the rest of the world,” Moon predicted. In 2015, the U.S. contributed close to $306 million to the Geneva-based WHO, dwarfing the next biggest donor, the U.K., which put in nearly $196 million. WHO is already facing a funding crisis and has appealed to donors to boost commitments. It will finish 2016-2017 with a shortfall of $500 million, or 15 percent of its budget, with the emergencies program the most underfunded, facing a 44 percent gap. “Engagement with and support for a strong WHO will be very much at risk,” said Moon, a WHO expert who quizzed five of the six director general candidates for the agency in a panel debate last week." "On global health I would be really, really concerned in the future, in terms of U.S. commitment to things like the Global Fund, Gavi, or in their own domestic programs and in terms of engagement in the wider world [on global health issues],” said Thiru Balasubramaniam, Geneva representative for the social justice not-for-profit, Knowledge Ecology International. He noted that both Gavi and the Global Fund recently underwent funding replenishment processes, “but in the middle and longer term I don’t think it will look so good.” “Contributions to these programs are a public good; there are so many people who are alive because of access to the kinds of therapies, like antiretrovirals for HIV, vaccines and drugs for TB and malaria,” he said. In addition, questions remain over the funding for U.S. programs like the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. PEPFAR was a legacy of former Republican President George W. Bush’s era. He created it in 2003 to help strengthen the capacity of countries to respond to HIV outbreaks and to transform the global HIV/AIDS response. Bush’s “bold and visionary leadership” created PEPFAR, the annual report noted, adding it is a “legacy that President Barack Obama has embraced and on which he has significantly expanded.” What happens now under Trump remains to be seen."
November 9, 2025 at 4:00 AM