The Global Pulse Journal Blog

In its meeting yesterday, the board of UNITAID voted to approve the Patent Pool for HIV/AIDS drugs, opening the door for greater development and production of desperately needed antiretrovirals. Lowering intellectual property barriers on ARVs and allowing for the production and sales of generic versions of the drugs in resource-poor countries will help make the drugs affordable to the people who need them the most, and has the potential to save millions of lives. According to its sponsors, the Patent Pool could also save over $1,000,000,000 a year.

Want to know what the Patent Pool is all about? Read the very recent Global Pulse interview with Ellen ‘t Hoen, Senior Advisor for the Patent Pool at UNITAID.
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There has been significant concern over efforts by drug companies to keep middle-income countries out of the patent pool. If such limits are imposed, millions of impoverished HIV patients in India, China, and Brazil will remain unable to afford the drugs.

Read on for more on UNITAID, AIDS, intellectual property, and the Patent Pool.

UNITAID was founded in 2006 with the goal of reducing the world’s burden of the HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria in middle- and low-income countries. Currently, 93 countries receive UNITAID funding. The founding countries of UNITAID were Brazil, Chile, France, Norway, and the United Kingdom.

From UK’s The Guardian:

“The UNITAID decision is a huge victory for those in need of HIV treatment around the world,” Diarmaid McDonald, the co-ordinator of the umbrella group Stop AIDS, said. “It will help to break down the patent barriers which stop people getting the drugs they need to stay alive. UNITAID and the UK government should be commended for their leadership on this.”

McDonald said the focus “now shifts to the big drug companies”, adding: “It will test the sincerity of their rhetoric on helping the most vulnerable in our world.

“Companies like Gilead and Merck showed real leadership within the industry by speaking positively of the patent pool – they must now go beyond words and contribute their patents to the pool. The pressure will be on others within the industry to follow or to explain why they are willing to turn their backs on an initiative with such huge potential to save lives.”

Last year, 2.7 million people were newly infected with HIV and 2 million people died from AIDS (WAD 2009).

For more information:

• Read about support for the Patent Pool from MSF and political and civil society leaders.
• Read Kelly Morris’s article on the HIV treatment crisis in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.
• Read “The Treatment Timebomb”, the groundbreaking report by the UK government calling for greater leadership on reducing the costs of ARVs (with foreword by Dr. Peter Piot). (Report summary at The Lancet.)