WHO has been debating the need for alternatives to patents for inspiring new, cheaper medicines for third world countries.

Elisabeth Rosenthal describes the WHO report in "How drug patenting fails the world's poor" in the International Herald Tribune on May 21:

Governments should therefore develop and finance an alternate system for drug development and distribution in the developing world, the report concluded. More controversially, it suggested that drug companies should not seek patents in poor countries.

The report is ably critiqued in an editorial by Andres Mejia-Vergnaud in the Manila Times, "Drug Delusions at the WHO.":

The “Global Framework” fundamentally misdiagnoses the problems faced by the poor, claiming the market has left the poor without treatments for their myriad diseases. In reality, the vast majority of the diseases of poverty can be treated with existing, cheap, off-patent drugs. While there remain some diseases, such as leishmaniasis, that lack adequate cures, these kill far fewer people than diarrhea, chest infections and malaria, for which treatments exist. The real problem is getting existing medicines to those in need—a problem the “Global Framework” does not even acknowledge.

Shockingly, these barriers to access include extortionate taxes and tariffs on drugs: 37.8 percent in Kenya and 28.6 percent in Brazil.

Most government-directed initiatives to develop new medicines have ended in failure. At best, such schemes are poorly managed and wasteful.

posted by Solveig Singleton @ 11:43 AM | International, Patents, Pharma, Prices, Terms, and Licensing

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