[Ip-health] Letter from George Soros calling on UNITAID to adopt Patent Pool

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

23 November 2009

Dear Drs Douste-Blazy and Bermudez:

I am writing to voice my support and encourage UNITAID=92s Board and
Secretariat to continue its ground-breaking, innovative work on the
establishment of a patent pool for HIV/AIDS medications. I wish to
congratulate UNITAID on its demonstrated vision and leadership in
taking on this important issue.

I have been involved for many years through my Foundation, the Open
Society Institute, in access to essential medicines work.  Over the
last 15 years, OSI has funded HIV/AIDS and TB treatment and prevention
efforts in countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Africa.  I
have personally supported the creation of the Global Fund to Fight
AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM), with which OSI has also subsequently
engaged in support of effective grant implementation.. Since 2007,
OSI's Access to Essential Medicines Initiative (AEMI) has assisted the
leading civil society organizations working on intellectual property
and access to medicines issues, including on the advancement of new
models to incentivize public health needs-driven innovation and
access. As you are aware, we have also supported the civil society
delegations on the UNITAID Board, to actively contribute to realizing
UNITAID=92s ambitions of improving access to lifesaving medicines and
foster innovation.

In the last 10 years, access to HIV/AIDS treatment has vastly expanded
globally. This increased access resulted largely from generic
competition, which drove down the prices of the initial first-line
treatments, and from the establishment of the GFATM. These advances
are currently endangered by high prices for both improved first line
treatments and all second line treatments. In the post-TRIPs era, the
mechanisms previously used to create generic competition are no longer
available. In addition, little research and development work is
currently dedicated to finding more relevant, better adapted
formulations for particularly vulnerable groups in resource poor
settings. These include affordable fixed-dose combinations and
critically needed formulations for children. In the current
international financial context, it is even more urgent to explore new
mechanisms to boost the availability of patient-friendly and
affordable lifesaving medicines.

UNITAID=92s Medicines Patent Pool initiative has the potential to bring
about a highly needed paradigm shift to allow the world community to
better address the chronic crisis of access to essential medicines in
low- and middle-income countries. There is compelling case to be made
for medicine patent pools, especially for lifesaving medicines for an
enormous public health need such as HIV/AIDS.

The UNITAID Medicines Patent Pool is a strategic opportunity to
establish long term solutions to excessively high priced AIDS
medicines, and could foster innovative and needs-driven R&D to
generate new AIDS drugs. It will be essential for the patent pool to
cover not only low income countries but also middle income countries
where access to essential medicines remains a challenge for the
poorest and most marginalized. Through our work in Eastern Europe and
Central Asia for instance, we hear on a daily basis that ARV prices,
and lack of appropriate dosage forms constitute major barriers to
increase access to treatment.

Since current mechanisms do not provide sufficient incentives to
address these needs, I, along with many OSI partners, fully support
UNITAID=92s courageous endeavor that will not only change market
dynamics for AIDS medicines but can also serve as a model for other
diseases in the future. Health activists, particularly those
advocating on HIV/AIDS worldwide, are excited about this UNITAID
initiative.

UNITAID is uniquely positioned to drive the patent pool forward. In
line with its engagement with UNITAID, OSI would be keen to support an
active civil society engagement in the framing and implementation of
this initiative.

Yours Sincerely,

George Soros


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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