May 1998: US Opposes WHO Resolution to Put Public Health over Commercial Interests

In Geneva, at the 1998 World Health Assembly, delegates from the US State Department and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA ) threaten to withdraw funding for the World Health Organization (WHO) when members propose including a provision in its resolution on the Revised Drug Strategy that would urge countries “to ensure that public-health interests rather than commercial interests have ‘primacy’ in pharmaceutical and health policies.” As a result of the United States’ opposition, the statement is not adopted. The US also opposes a proposal to give the WHO a role in monitoring international trade agreements. [Consumer Project on Technology, 5/13/1998; Consumer Project on Technology, 10/16/1998; Wilson et al., 11/27/1999]