Re/Insurers, Other Global Businesses Have Stake in New WHO Leader

The World Health Organization’s 194 member-states will vote for a new director-general next week, choosing a doctor to lead the planet’s top technical agency on all matters health.

With a $4 billion annual budget, WHO’s influence extends to virtually all of humanity, from food quality and environmental hazards to immunizations and the response to pandemics. One of three candidates will be elected at the Palais des Nations in Geneva on May 23 for a five-year term to provide the leadership, muster the resources, and implement the strategies that are central to global health, security, and development.

Nominees to succeed current Director-General Margaret Chan on July 1 are David Nabarro (U.K.); Sania Nishtar (Pakistan); and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (Ethiopia).

Whoever wins the top spot will also need to drum up financial support for the beleaguered, 69-year-old agency after the Trump Administration flagged reducing funding to the United Nations, of which the WHO is part.

Here are 10 reasons why the election is of interest to the global business community:

WHO is pushing for wider access to ground-breaking new treatments for hepatitis C, cancer, and multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, and is lobbying to make the medicines more affordable — an effort that has ramifications for drugmakers such as Gilead Sciences Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., Roche Holding AG and AstraZeneca Plc. It also helps other UN agencies procure billions of dollars of pharmaceutical products by vetting manufacturers to ensure they meet WHO standards and specifications.

“There is enormous interest in the business community about global health security,” said Lawrence Gostin, the Founding O’Neill Chair in Global Health Law at Washington’s Georgetown University. “Because of disruption in markets and consumer behavior, the potential for restrictions on travel, trade and tourism can make a huge difference.”