Big Pharma urged to pool HIV patents

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), an international humanitarian organisation, has called upon nine global pharma giants to pool their HIV patents in order to make available treatment to millions living with HIV/AIDS. The MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders in the US, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999.

These companies are GSK, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Abbott, Gilead Sciences, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck, Boehringer-Ingelheim, and Sequoia Pharma.
Patent pool implies a mechanism whereby patents held by the giants are pooled together and made available to others for production. In turn, the patent holders receive royalty from those using their patents.

“Once the patents are put in a pool, generic companies can use them to manufacture generics and pay royalties to the innovator. This way, medications can be made available to several people at cheaper rates,” says Leena Menghaney, campaign coordinator (India), MSF (campaign for access to essential medicines).

A patent pool can speed up the availability of generics, as they can be produced well before the 20-year patent term expires.“Some companies have expressed interest in the idea, but we need them to go further and put key patents in the pool,” says Michelle Childs, director of policy & advocacy at MSF’s campaign for access to essential medicines.

However, according to an MSF official, the response of these companies has not been very encouraging so far. “It will lead to companies losing monopoly and hence some of them don’t seem keen on such a proposition. Gilead has shown some interest though,” says the official.

A GSK spokesperson says the company has not ruled out the possibility of participating in the pool. “Earlier in the year, we created a patent pool for neglected tropical diseases because we felt it could help draw attention to the need for more research. HIV is not included in our patent pool because as far as R&D is concerned, we do not consider it as neglected.”

AIDS is a major global issue today, with the HIV-infected population at over 33 million already. Access to medicines, however, remains poor. According to a report by the World Health Organisation (WHO), UNICEF and UNAIDS, over 4 million people in low and middle income countries were receiving antiretroviral therapy at the close of 2008. However, at least 5 million more with the infection still do not have access to treatment. UNITAID, a WHO initiative, is currently establishing a patent pool for HIV drugs.

The success of the venture depends on the willingness of patent owners to participate and so, MSF is encouraging companies to pool their patents.MSF currently treats over 140,000 HIV/AIDS patients in 30 countries.

“Although the various projects of UNITAID including the CHAI paediatric project, CHAI second line AIDS project, prevention of mother-to-child transmission project, etc do have major achievements, there is still a need to reach out to many more people for whom medicines are still unavailable and unaffordable,” a UNITAID procurement officer says.