PHM-Exch> The HIV Treatment Timebomb

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Vern Weitzel <vern.weitzel at gmail.com>
crosposted from: "[health-vn discussion group]" <health-vn at anu.edu.au>
From:   AIDS ASIA<AIDS_ASIA at yahoogroups.com>
The Treatment Timebomb   (excerpt)

Political activism needed for patent pools for HIV drugs.

Editorial. The Lancet, Volume 374, Issue 9686, Page 266, 25 July 2009.

"Political activism is needed once more to ensure that the next
generation of drugs is available to the world's poorest", according to a
report from the UK All-Parliamentary Group on AIDS published last week.
The Treatment Timebomb describes itself as an important wake-up call to
those who think that successful delivery on the promise of universal
access to HIV treatment can be achieved in the long term by just doing
more of the same.

One of the report's recommendations, supported by International
Development Minister Mike Foster, is the implementation of a patent pool
for HIV drugs. Pharmaceutical companies insist that patents are an
important incentive for research and development into HIV medicines but,
perversely, patents can also hinder such research.

Patent pools could create a win-win situation. Under this system, patent
holders would still be rewarded—the originator drug company would
receive a proportion of the royalties—while enabling the generic
production of newer HIV drugs and the development of new fixed-dose
combinations.

The concept of patent pools is not new. The Intergovernmental Working
Group on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property
(IGWG)—established at the World Health Assembly in 2006 to find
innovative solutions to fund research and development in neglected
diseases—has repeatedly called for a patent pool which would be managed
by UNITAID.

Drug companies have dismissed these calls preferring the status quo, so
it is unsurprising that the UK drug firm GlaxoSmithKline has stated that
it does not see the need for the patent pool proposed by the
All-Parliamentary Group.


The Treatment Timebomb

Report of the Inquiry of The All Party Parliamentary Group on AIDS into
long-term access to HIV medicines in the developing world

http://www.aidsportal.org/repos/APPGTimebomb091.pdf
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