HIV Drugs Patent Pool
posted: 18/12/2009
An international agreement to pool drug patents for HIV treatments has just been launched, putting even more pressure on drug companies to give up their monopoly rights to HIV drugs. The idea is to make low cost treatment far more widely available in poorer countries.
Unitaid, an international drug purchasing facility, voted for the pool in Geneva this week. It was welcomed by campaigners and the British government, which has strongly backed the idea.
Campaigners say millions of lives could be saved by drug companies giving up their patent rights to allow anti-HIV drugs to be produced cheaply by generic manufacturers. It would also allow different companies' drugs to be combined in simple-to-take multi-drug combination pills for people in the developing world.
The rich multi-national patent-holding drug companies would get a royalty in exchange while keeping their exclusive 20-year patent rights in wealthy countries.
'Victory' for developing world
"The Unitaid decision is a huge victory for those in need of HIV treatment around the world," Diarmaid McDonald, the co-ordinator of the umbrella group Stop Aids, said. "It will help to break down the patent barriers which stop people getting the drugs they need to stay alive. Unitaid and the UK government should be commended for their leadership on this." McDonald said the focus "now shifts to the big drug companies", adding: "It will test the sincerity of their rhetoric on helping the most vulnerable in our world."
People Campaigning
A grass roots campaign is asking people to email the ten leading drug multi-nationals with HIV patents to ask them to take the patent pool plunge.
Drug companies divided
"Companies like Gilead and Merck showed real leadership within the industry by speaking positively of the patent pool – they must now go beyond words and contribute their patents to the pool. The pressure will be on others within the industry to follow or to explain why they are willing to turn their backs on an initiative with such huge potential to save lives."
A small number of companies have so far shown a willingness to discuss flexibility over their patents, but the British firm GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) – a leading manufacturer of HIV drugs – is not interested.
Andrew Witty, GSK’s chief executive, said this summer that he had reservations and believed the company's price cuts and other initiatives would produce better results.
GSK under more pressure
McDonald said there had been meetings with GSK, but stressed that the company was a long way from committing to any involvement. "They have come up with lengthy questions and hesitations and concerns about the patent pool and have been less than co-operative in how they have engaged with the Unitaid task force," he added. "The pressure is going to increase on GSK to justify their rationale for walking away from an initiative which could save millions of lives."
Treatment at the crossroads
The international development minister, Mike Foster, applauded the board's decision. "The international community is at a crossroads in meeting the demand for HIV treatment," he said. "Last year, 2.7 million people were newly infected with HIV and 2 million people died from Aids – the need to make effective HIV medicines affordable for developing countries has never been greater. The Unitaid patent pool could be a key means of addressing the treatment crisis."
The UK is a founder member of Unitaid, along with Chile, Brazil, Norway and France. Much of its funding comes from a tax on airlines.
Michelle Childs, the policy director at Médecins Sans Frontières, the volunteer doctors organisation that pioneered the use of HIV drugs in the developing world, said the pool would be judged by its outcome. "We've been encouraged by the positive responses from a number of companies to our campaign in support of the pool," she said.
"Now that the pool has been given a green light, patent holders need to move from expressions of general support to firm and formal license commitments. We urge them to do so. This needs to happen fast as the clock is ticking for millions of patients."
Source
Unitaid report
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