Pool HIV Patents

posted: 17/04/2009

The UK Minister for International Development has challenged drug companies to help the developing world by giving up their patent rights to compounds that could be used in cures for neglected diseases and medicines for children with HIV.

Ivan Lewis, the minister for international development, said it was reasonable to expect the drug giants to do more. "Now is the time for industry to step up to the mark," he said. We're all concerned about the economic circumstances we're living in and the danger that that will push an increasing number of people into poverty," he added. "Challenging pharma to do their bit ... is entirely legitimate."

Pool Patents

Lewis will meet executives of leading drug companies to ask them to join two patent pools. He wants to know whether they will respond to the invitation of GlaxoSmithKline, which a few weeks ago said it would put all relevant patents into a pool designed to facilitate research into drugs for neglected diseases, and invited other companies to do the same.

Lewis will also ask whether they will support a patent pool for HIV medicines being designed by Unitaid, an international organisation launched by France, Brazil, Chile, Norway and the UK that buys medicines for the developing world.

"There's never been a better time for other companies to make their position known," he said.

Faster child-friendly treatments

The minister also intends to press Unitaid to move faster. He will write to the agency "urging them to speed up their work specifically on the question of child-friendly HIV treatments".

New medicines for TB are among those needed as the global epidemic grows, fuelled by HIV and complicated by resistance to old drugs. On World TB Day, Lewis announced £18m research funding for the TB Alliance to develop a shorter course of treatment. The UK is making the grant against a background of concern that recession may cause donors to cut back on funding for poor countries.
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