Healthy Skepticism Library item: 15349

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Publication type: news

Boseley S.
Drug giants urged to create patent pools
The Guardian 2009 Mar 24
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/mar/24/pharamcuticals-patent-pools-hiv-drugs

Full text:

A government minister will today challenge 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.”

Lewis plans to meet executives of leading drug companies to ask them whether they will participate in two patent pool initiatives. He wants to know whether they will respond to the invitation of the British company 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.

GlaxoSmithKline’s chief executive, Andrew Witty, told the Guardian at the time: “I can’t tell you how many speeches I’ve heard about, you know, ‘I wish we could make progress on TB’ or ‘Why haven’t we got treatments for these things?’ We all sit there saying well yes, it’s terrible isn’t it, instead of actually trying to do something about it. So … what I really hope this does is stimulate people to start engaging with us, and maybe other people to say, look, actually, if you did it this way it could really work.”

Witty said he knew other chief executives worried about this too, adding: “Who knows, maybe somebody has to move before many people move.” So far, however, there has been no similar declaration from other drug companies.

Lewis will also be asking chief executives 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.

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. Today, which is World TB Day, Lewis will announce £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.