[Ip-health] IP-Watch: Patent Pooling Is Next Step For Innovative Drug Purchasing Agency

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/wp-trackback.php?p=3D1135

9 July 2008
Patent Pooling Is Next Step For Innovative Drug Purchasing Agency

By Kaitlin Mara
A =93landmark=94 decision was made last week by a unique intergovernmental
initiative for drug financing in poor and underserved areas: an
agreement on the usefulness of sharing intellectual property rights to
lower costs and increase quality of needed medicines.

At its eighth executive board meeting in Geneva on 2 and 3 July,
market-oriented drug purchasing mechanism UNITAID agreed to the
principle of establishing a patent pool - that is, a collection of
intellectual property assets with the consent of their rights holders,
for easier licensing to third party manufacture or researchers.

Executive Secretary of UNITAID Jorge Bermudez called the move =93an
important step=94 and the first time the organisation is addressing
intellectual property and access to medicines in a concrete manner. It
will be a useful addition to other innovative tactics in place already
at UNITAID that also lower drug prices while increasing availability
and quality in underserved areas, he added.

UNITAID is a joint project begun by France, Brazil, Chile, Norway and
the United Kingdom that levees a tax on airline tickets - as an
economically neutral and stable source of funding - and uses it to
finance an international drug purchasing facility focussed on the
world=92s three biggest epidemic killers: HIV/AIDS, malaria, and
tuberculosis.

UNITAID funds projects that have strategic impact on the drug market -
working to lower the cost of medication or influencing manufacturers
to make drugs better suited to the needs of low income areas.

Bermudez told Intellectual Property Watch that the next steps will be
to set up a task force to develop an operational plan for the creation
of a patent pool. A search for appropriate members - which a UNITAID
news release says will include experts in =93patent law, legal and
business risks, economic analysis, public health and medicines,=94 is
already under way and the group is expected to be working in the next
three to four weeks.

A potential first priority for the patent pool could be on paediatric
antiretroviral medication, but it will not be restricted to these,
Bermudez said.

The operational plan is set to be approved at the next board meeting
in November 2008, with the projected start date for patent pool
implementation in 2009. =93We are all working for that [date] to be
feasible and possible,=94 Bermudez told Intellectual Property Watch,
adding that the pool creation is =93an important landmark in public
health.=94

Exploring ways to handle the intellectual property dimension of access
to medication has been an agenda item of UNITAID for a while, said
Bermudez, and patent pools had been brought to the attention of the
executive board at its meeting in 2006 when medical aid group M=E9decins
Sans Fronti=E8res and the non-profit Essential Inventions proposed such
a setup for drugs related to HIV/AIDS.

The outcome documents of the recent World Health Organization
Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation, and
Intellectual Property (IGWG) and the subsequent World Health Assembly
(WHA) helped spur effort such as this one by garnering the support of
member nations, said Ellen =91t Hoen, director of policy advocacy at
MSF=92s access to essential medicines campaign.

The global strategy and plan of action on public health[pdf] that came
out of the WHA at the end of May calls for members to =93examine the
feasibility of voluntary patent pools=94 for public health purposes.

=93This is quite a major step forward,=94 said =91t Hoen, and could help
=93overcome IP barriers to development of fixed dose combinations=94 for
HIV/AIDS drugs. She added the decision was =93very, very encouraging=94
and that MSF was =93certainly committed=94 to seeing a patent pool created.

Michelle Childs, CEO for Essential Inventions and head of non-profit
group Knowledge Ecology International Europe, called the patent pool
=93an opportunity for a fresh start on access to HIV medicines for
donors, universities, pharmaceutical companies and patients.=94 She
added that =93strong civil society engagement with patent owners and
=93sound management=94 would be key to the pool=92s future success.

A spokesperson for the International Federation of Pharmaceutical
Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) said the patent pool was =93very
interesting=94 but felt that its specifics were too vague to comment
upon yet.

MSF=92s =91t Hoen said that the increase in patent disputes worldwide -
something she predicted would only get worse - might make something
like a patent pool appeal to rights holders as a =93much better
solution.=94 Childs agreed, calling a pool an =93innovative way=94 to ensur=
e
drug access =93instead of litigation and confrontation.=94

It will be a voluntary mechanism at first, said =91t Hoen, adding it is
=93now up to companies to volunteer.=94

Kaitlin Mara may be reached kmara@ip-watch.ch.

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Thiru Balasubramaniam
Geneva Representative
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
thiru@keionline.org


Tel: +41 22 791 6727
Mobile: +41 76 508 0997