[Ip-health] European Voice Article: Five-fold increase in TB research needed

[Alexandra HEUMBER]

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Please find below an article from the European Voice.
http://www.europeanvoice.com/article/2008/11/five-fold-increase-in-tb-resea=
rch-needed/63089.aspx[1]

"MSF also argues that the Commission needs to review how it allocates money
and to consider alternatives. One of those it suggests is the creation of a
prize fund.(...)
Like MSF, Malpani said the Commission should also consider creating a ?pate=
nt
pool', a system of cross-licensing that enables generic pharmaceutical
companies to produce low-cost versions of their drugs for developing countr=
ies
while therefore tempers the risk of intellectual-property theft. "
Five-fold increase in TB research needed
By Zo=EB Casey
17.11.2008 / 09:07 CET

M=E9d=E9cin Sans Fronti=E8res says the European Commission needs to multipl=
y its
?deeply inadequate? spending as tuberculosis returns to Europe.

The European Commission and the EU as a whole are devoting far too little o=
n
research on tropical diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria, M=E9d=E9cin=
 Sans
Fronti=E8res says.

Although the medical charity's report, published on 14 November, relates to=
 a
range of tropical diseases, it highlights Europe's failure to devote resour=
ces
to TB as being particularly dangerous, in part because the rapid spread of =
TB
from Central Asia and the Caucasus into eastern Europe and the Baltic state=
s
has placed the EU on the frontline of the disease.

MSF estimates that each year the world needs to devote about ?1.45 billion =
to
research into TB, which kills 1.7 million people a year. Based on its share=
 of
the world economy (31%), the EU's ?fair share? should be spending some ?409
million a year, it says. As the Commission currently accounts for about
one-quarter share of current European spending on TB research, the European
Commission itself should be spending ?101m on the disease. Instead, it spen=
t
?18.7 million in 2007, a sum that MSF described as ?deeply inadequate?.

The complacency of national governments is also highlighted: for example, t=
he
EU's largest economy ? Germany ? contributed just ?7.5 million in 2007, MSF
said.

The lack of funding is apparent in the relatively limited number of new dru=
gs
that have come onto the market. MSF writes that, between 1975 and 2004, jus=
t
1.3% of new drugs were for ?neglected diseases?, a classification that
includes both well-known diseases ? TB and malaria ?and little-known
parasite-borne diseases such as leishmaniasis and Chagas. This is almost te=
n
times less than warranted by their incidence: together they account for 12%=
 of
the world's ?disease burden?.

MSF also argues that the Commission needs to review how it allocates money =
and
to consider alternatives. One of those it suggests is the creation of a pri=
ze
fund.

MSF's call was echoed by the development charity Oxfam, which did not
contribute to the report. Oxfam's Rohit Malpani said that the Commission
should allocate more of its research programme's money to develop treatment=
s
for ?neglected diseases'.

?For too many years the poor have been handed the left-over scraps from our
global system of medical innovation,? Malpani said.

Malpani said that the Commission could also help to make drugs cheaper for
developing countries by funding alternatives into the traditional patent-ba=
sed
research model that has given pharmaceutical giants a monopoly over medicin=
es
for HIV, malaria and TB. Non-profit partnerships that encourage innovation
would be one such alternative, he said.

Like MSF, Malpani said the Commission should also consider creating a ?pate=
nt
pool', a system of cross-licensing that enables generic pharmaceutical
companies to produce low-cost versions of their drugs for developing countr=
ies
while therefore tempers the risk of intellectual-property theft.
=A9 2008 European Voice. All rights reserved.
____________________________________
Alexandra Heumber
IP Policy Adviser
M=E9decins Sans Fronti=E8res
Access to Essential Medicines Campaign
Rue Dupr=E9, 94. 1090 Brussels
++32 (0) 2 474 75 09 (Dir off)
++ 32 (0) 479 514 900 (Mob)
++ 32 (0) 2 474 75 75 (Fax)

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  1. http://www.europeanvoice.com/article/2008/11/five-fold-increase-in-tb-=
research-needed/63089.aspx