WHO attempt to reach H5N1 sample sharing stalls

The World Health Organization has admitted that talks aimed at encouraging governments to share avian influenza virus samples have stalled. The problem arises out of Indonesia (where almost half of all human deaths from the H5N1 disease have occurred since 2003) and which has about 235 million inhabitants. The government there insists on guarantees that any drugs developed with the assistance of Indonesian virus samples must be made available in priority at an affordable level to the Indonesian population. The authorities also want intellectual property rights to be shared with the countries where the samples originate from.