[Ip-health] The Independent: Drug companies 'failing to meet health needs of world's poorest'

[Ira Glazer]

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article570249.ece

By Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor
Published: 23 May 2006


The dominance of the global pharmaceutical firms in providing medicine
to the world's poor faces its strongest challenge yet at a meeting of
World Health Organisation (WHO) in Geneva this week

The existing system of drug patenting and pricing is fundamentally
flawed and does not meet health needs, according to report released to
health experts last month.

The dominance of the global pharmaceutical firms in providing medicine
to the world's poor faces its strongest challenge yet at a meeting of
World Health Organisation (WHO) in Geneva this week

The existing system of drug patenting and pricing is fundamentally
flawed and does not meet health needs, according to report released to
health experts last month.

Delegates at this year's World Health Assembly, which opened yesterday,
will vote on proposals that would dramatically increase pressure on the
companies, governments and the WHO to reform the system for producing
and distributing drugs in the developing world.

However, campaigners fear the report is being undermined after it was
not given prime position in the assembly's agenda.

The way in which multinational drug companies protect their patents in
order to reap profits was highlighted by the pricing of Aids drugs a
decade ago at $10,000 (=A35,300) to $15,000 a year, beyond the means of
countries such as South Africa where the need was greatest.

An international outcry led to a court challenge which resulted in the
price of Aids drugs being slashed to $150 a year.

The report, by the Commission on Intellectual Property Rights,
Innovation and Public Health, saidthe existing system of research and
development "has not yet produced the results hoped for, or even
expected for, the people of developing countries".

Its says drugs are priced too high and there is no incentive to research
treatments for the developing world, where the need is great but profits
are low. Large sums are committed to finding cures for conditions such
as baldness, which is not fatal, rather than for tuberculosis, which is.

The first vaccine to prevent cervical cancer was approved by the US Food
and Drug administration last week. Its manufacturer, Merck, priced it at
$500 for a course of three shots. That puts it beyond the reach of
developing countries, where 80 per cent of cases occur.

Ellen 't Hoen, the director of Medecins sans Frontiers' Campaign for
Access to Essential Medicines, said tighter regulations imposed by the
World Trade Organisation meant countries with an industry in generic
drugs were less able to escape patent protection laws than in the past.

"We are in a world today where all new medicines are patentable. That
means countries have to deal with one company to try to get lower
prices. Countries will probably plead with Merck [over the cancer
vaccine] and some will get it cheaper, while some will not. But this is
'Big Pharma' dictating the rules of the game, not governments."

The pharmaceutical industry insists that it needs patent protection to
recoup development costs, estimated at =A3500m per drug. But the report
says governments should devise an alternative system for drug
development and patents on essential drugs should be lifted in poorer
countries.

Ms 't Hoen said: "The pharmaceutical industry is a =A3500bn business. It
is the most profitable in the world. It needs to earn back its research
costs but it does that royally. If it ploughed profits into areas of
research ... for the developing world that would make sense but it does
not. Tuberculosis kills millions and there is no research agenda to deal
with that."

Between 1975 and 2004, only 20 out of more than 1,500 new drugs marketed
globally were for tropical diseases and tuberculosis, which account for
12 per cent of the total disease burden.

The World Health Assembly will vote on whether to adopt the report as
part of the WHO's mandate. Ms 't Hoen said: "They are unlikely to come
up with a blueprint for a global framework but we hope this will be a
start."

*Neglected diseases*

* An estimated 40 million people have Aids world-wide, 95 per cent of
them in the developing world. New, cheaper drugs now need to be
distributed to those who need them

* Leishmaniasis affects two million a year and kills 60,000. Resistance
to Pentostam is growing and new drugs are needed

* Malaria kills more than one million people a year, 90 per cent of them
children. Combination therapy is the treatment of choice, but many
nations can't pay the =A31.30 cost per adult.

* Tuberculosis kills an estimated two million people a year.
Multi-drug-resistant TB is growing, but there has been little research
since the 1960s.

Delegates at this year's World Health Assembly, which opened yesterday,
will vote on proposals that would dramatically increase pressure on the
companies, governments and the WHO to reform the system for producing
and distributing drugs in the developing world.

However, campaigners fear the report is being undermined after it was
not given prime position in the assembly's agenda.

The way in which multinational drug companies protect their patents in
order to reap profits was highlighted by the pricing of Aids drugs a
decade ago at $10,000 (=A35,300) to $15,000 a year, beyond the means of
countries such as South Africa where the need was greatest.

An international outcry led to a court challenge which resulted in the
price of Aids drugs being slashed to $150 a year.

The report, by the Commission on Intellectual Property Rights,
Innovation and Public Health, saidthe existing system of research and
development "has not yet produced the results hoped for, or even
expected for, the people of developing countries".

Its says drugs are priced too high and there is no incentive to research
treatments for the developing world, where the need is great but profits
are low. Large sums are committed to finding cures for conditions such
as baldness, which is not fatal, rather than for tuberculosis, which is.

The first vaccine to prevent cervical cancer was approved by the US Food
and Drug administration last week. Its manufacturer, Merck, priced it at
$500 for a course of three shots. That puts it beyond the reach of
developing countries, where 80 per cent of cases occur.

Ellen 't Hoen, the director of Medecins sans Frontiers' Campaign for
Access to Essential Medicines, said tighter regulations imposed by the
World Trade Organisation meant countries with an industry in generic
drugs were less able to escape patent protection laws than in the past.

"We are in a world today where all new medicines are patentable. That
means countries have to deal with one company to try to get lower
prices. Countries will probably plead with Merck [over the cancer
vaccine] and some will get it cheaper, while some will not. But this is
'Big Pharma' dictating the rules of the game, not governments."

The pharmaceutical industry insists that it needs patent protection to
recoup development costs, estimated at =A3500m per drug. But the report
says governments should devise an alternative system for drug
development and patents on essential drugs should be lifted in poorer
countries.

Ms 't Hoen said: "The pharmaceutical industry is a =A3500bn business. It
is the most profitable in the world. It needs to earn back its research
costs but it does that royally. If it ploughed profits into areas of
research ... for the developing world that would make sense but it does
not. Tuberculosis kills millions and there is no research agenda to deal
with that."

Between 1975 and 2004, only 20 out of more than 1,500 new drugs marketed
globally were for tropical diseases and tuberculosis, which account for
12 per cent of the total disease burden.

The World Health Assembly will vote on whether to adopt the report as
part of the WHO's mandate. Ms 't Hoen said: "They are unlikely to come
up with a blueprint for a global framework but we hope this will be a
start."

Neglected diseases

An estimated 40 million people have Aids world-wide, 95 per cent of them
in the developing world. New, cheaper drugs now need to be distributed
to those who need them

Leishmaniasis affects two million a year and kills 60,000. Resistance to
Pentostam is growing and new drugs are needed

Malaria kills more than one million people a year, 90 per cent of them
children. Combination therapy is the treatment of choice, but many
nations can't pay the =A31.30 cost per adult.

Tuberculosis kills an estimated two million people a year.
Multi-drug-resistant TB is growing, but there has been little research
since the 1960s.