[Ip-health] BBC: Oxfam calls for drug firm action

[Johanna von Braun]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7113584.stm



Oxfam calls for drug firm action



Drug firms are missing out on a huge potential market by failing to
make drugs affordable for the world's poor, a report by charity Oxfam
suggests.

Drug firms have made "halting progress" in increasing access to
medicine, but much more needs to be done, Oxfam said.

The world's biggest drug firms have done little research into diseases
that affect poor people, the report said.

And their overzealous protection of patents means many poor people
cannot afford the drugs they need.

Priced out

Currently 85% of the world's population is priced out of the
industry's market, the report said.

Those who cannot afford drugs often pay with their lives.

Malaria claims the lives of one million people every year, while two
million people die annually from TB.

Anti-poverty charity Oxfam says prices for essential medicines need to
be tiered, in line with people's ability to pay.

Some companies do offer different prices but often "solely as a
reflection of the publicity that surrounds the disease or the
country", the report said.

Drug firms rely over heavily on donations to deliver affordable drugs
and do little research into the drugs developing countries need, it
added.

Between 1999 and 2004, there were only three new drugs targeted at
diseases affecting the developing world out of 163 drugs brought to
market, the report said.

Justify the cost

Leading pharmaceutical companies argue that they need to charge higher
prices to justify the billions of dollars they spend on research and
development.

High taxes and mark-ups by pharmacists and dispensing doctors also
push medicine prices higher, they point out.

In addition, their drugs and brands are often ripped off in countries
with poor copyright protection.

But, by refusing to offer prices that suit the pocket of its poorer
consumers, drug firms are losing out, Oxfam argues.

These economies offer huge market potential but industry needs a
"vastly different approach: one which reflects the significance of
massive income disparities", the report said.

"The industry is operating in a short-sighted way because it could
gain enormous benefits from emerging markets, including lower
development costs and cheaper manufacturing. Yet instead it continues
to blindly use the same strategies in poor countries," Oxfam's head of
research Sumi Dhanarajan said.