[Ip-health] FT: Drive to change patent regime for medicines

[James Love]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/fdc61bac-8c09-11dc-af4d-0000779fd2ac.html

Financial Times FT.com
Tuesday Nov 6 2007

Drive to change patent regime for medicines

By Andrew Jack in London and Frances Williams in Geneva

Published: November 6 2007 02:00 | Last updated: November 6 2007 02:00

Two proposals to challenge long-standing patent rules will be debated
this week at a meeting of governments drawing up policies aimed at
bringing useful and affordable medicines to the developing world.

A coalition of non-governmental organisations and developing countries
is calling for =E2=80=9Cpatent pools=E2=80=9D to combine intellectual prope=
rty rights on
existing medicines, and a =E2=80=9Cprize fund=E2=80=9D to stimulate discove=
ry of drugs
for neglected diseases.

Both initiatives face strong opposition from some developed countries
and the pharmaceutical industry. They would be designed to reward their
developers=E2=80=99 efforts while allowing low-cost competitor generic comp=
anies
to make the drugs as cheaply as possible immediately on launch.

The aim is to counteract market failures in the conventional approach to
developing medicines, which grants exclusive sales rights over several
years to a drug developer and does not stimulate research into illnesses
primarily affecting low-income countries.

The ideas will be raised at the week-long intergovernment working group
on public health, innovation and intellectual property convened by the
World Health Organisation, which opened in Geneva on Monday.

Alternative WHO draft proposals argue for cheaper distribution of
medicines through measures including more support for generic companies,
compulsory licences under World Trade Organisation rules, and
transparent, consistent and lower prices for drugs.

But Knowledge Ecology International, a US-based NGO, has championed the
two more radical approaches, and received support from several
developing countries including Kenya, which may launch pilot versions.

Patent pools, which have been used in aircraft manufacture and to
develop common technology standards for DVDs, combine different
developers=E2=80=99 intellectual property, which is licensed out to third
parties, while paying those with the patents a fixed royalty in
proportion to their contribution.

The prize fund would force governments to invest in innovation,
committing them to paying out royalties over a number of years to the
medicines developed while allowing generic companies to make them as
cheaply as possible.

Pharmaceutical companies argue that it is often inadequate investment in
health systems rather than high drug prices that is the main barrier.