WIPO China: Turning IP from a Legal Concept into a Health Outcome

On September 16, the Plenary of the Boao Forum for Asia Global Health Forum 2026 Haikou Conference was held in Haikou, Hainan Province. Liang Zhenying, Vice Chairman of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, attended and addressed the Plenary. Other speakers included Shen Hongbing, Vice Health Minister of the National Health Commission and Administrator of the National Disease Control and Prevention Administration; Sardar Md. Sakhawat Husain, Minister for Health and Family Welfare, The People's Republic of Bangladesh; Bounserth Keoprasith, Vice Minister of Health, The Lao People’s Democratic Republic; Yang Sheng, Deputy Director General, National Medical Products Administration; Mohamed Ahmed Abdelhakim Melegy, Head of Central Administration for Therapeutic Affairs, Ministry of Health and Population, The Arab Republic of Egypt; Hans Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe; Xie Jing, Vice Governor of Hainan Province. Shen Hongbing and Richard Remington, Senior Vice President of Elsevier Cell Press, delivered keynote speeches. Zhang Jun, Secretary General of Boao Forum for Asia, moderated the Opening Remarks session. Ren Minghui, Director of China Center for Health Development Studies and Institute for Global Health, Peking University, moderated the Keynote Speech session. Liu Hua, Director of WIPO Office in China, attended the Plenary.

At the Breakout Session on Strengthening Health Industry Cooperation for Common Regional Development, Liu Hua introduced the work of WIPO in advancing global health development. As the UN specialized agency for IP and innovation, WIPO has been committed to make intellectual property a catalyst for innovation and a driving force behind global health progress.

Liu Hua said that scientific and technological innovation has contributed to significant advances in public health. The global health field has accumulated vast innovative achievements — but a large number of these achievements lie dormant in laboratories and patent libraries, never translated into products at the patient's bedside. The challenge for policymakers is to establish an environment that stimulates health innovation while ensuring widespread access to new, more effective products to address unmet global health needs.

Liu Hua summarized the tools that WIPO provides for the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry as "five golden keys", namely the PCT, the Madrid System, the Hague System, the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), and IP information services. These "five golden keys" turn IP from a legal concept into a health outcome.

Liu Hua also invited relevant government departments, institutions and enterprises to actively participate in the two IP and health projects that WIPO is about to launch in China. One is the IP for Medical Innovation and Manufacturing Centre of Excellence (CoE), enhancing medical innovation and local manufacturing capacity. The other one is Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) project, raising the IP awareness and capacity building for AMR innovation, mapping and scaling technologies for AMR management in wastewater, and establishing a platform to facilitate the matching of supply and demand.

After the Conference, Liu Hua visited the Fushan Coffee Cultural Town, the Hainan Geographical Indication (GI) Exhibition Hall, and the Fushan Coffee Joint Company in Chengmai County, discussing with the Hainan Provincial Market Supervision Administration and the Intellectual Property Office on the development of GI industries in Hainan Province.

About the BFA GHF 2026 Haikou Conference

Themed with Health for All: Innovation Forges the Future, the BFA GHF 2026 Haikou Conference gathered over 300 representatives from international organizations, government agencies, research institutes and enterprises from more than 30 countries. The Conference held in-depth discussions on topics including global health governance, AI+health, healthy aging and the silver economy, health industry collaboration, innovative development of brain-computer interface medical devices, real-world research, import and export of pharmaceuticals and medical equipment, and building an Asia-Pacific cross-border health consumption circle. It contributed Boao insights and solutions to promote sustainable, high-quality development of health services and industries across Asia and globally, strengthen international exchange and cooperation in this field, and advance the joint construction of a common health community for humankind.