PIASA news: Patents aid access to medicines

Dr Eric Noehrenberg

Patents create opportunities and make it possible to learn from and build upon existing innovation.

This according to Dr Eric Noehrenberg, Director International Trade and Market Policy and Director Public Health Advocacy for the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations, who was in South Africa late last year as a guest of the Pharmaceutical Industry Association of South Africa.

Industry critics cite patents as a major stumbling block in the challenge of increasing access to medicines, particularly in developing countries. Dr Noehrenberg refutes this by explaining that 95% of the pharmaceutical products on the World Health Organisation's (WHO) essential drug list are not patented anywhere in the world. For those few patented drugs on WHO's list, the patent holders have instituted programs in many developing countries to expand and accelerate access to these medicines. This would indicate that access to medicines must be influenced by factors other than patent protection alone.

Patents, stresses Dr Noehrenberg, create competition and opportunities by preventing other companies from merely copying existing drugs and compelling competitors to find new and innovative ways of treating a specific disease or condition. Since 1988 the growth and development of product patents has increased significantly. “For example, the development of new pharmaceuticals has ensured more than 20 ARVs and nearly 60 drugs against AIDS-related infections, since 1985. Rarely have we seen a disease for which more drugs have been developed within such a short period of time and where the industry's output has had such a life-prolonging impact on so many patients.”

“Similarly, current and future health care problems will only be solved if companies can afford to do research and for this they need the assurance of a limited period return from patent protected drugs.”

Noehrenberg says the pharmaceutical industry is committed to working in partnership with the public sector, international organisations and responsible members of civil society to improve access to medicines worldwide.

“In an attempt to increase medicine access in developing countries, many pharmaceutical companies have implemented partnership programs and individual initiatives to reach impoverished populations – many at cost, below cost or free of charge. From this experience it appears that the real barriers to medication access are lack of infrastructure, lack of financing, taxes and tariffs and a lack of qualified medical personnel.”

A sound intellectual property framework, not only increases access to new innovative medicines by incentivising new product introductions into the market, but also encourages innovation by local researchers, via the effective use of intellectual property rights.

“International pharmaceutical company Novartis has been producing Coartem®, a product derived from a Chinese plant called sweet wormwood, which is now the leading new malaria treatment in affected countries. This important drug is based on Chinese traditional knowledge, where sweet wormwood has been used for centuries in the treatment of malaria.”

In conjunction with WHO, this drug is being offered to developing countries. Dr Noehrenberg explains how the same principle could possibly be applied in South Africa, where the role of traditional remedies is receiving greater attention from government and researchers.

Strong intellectual property rights are vital incentives for innovation, especially in the pharmaceutical sector, where the plethora of unmet medical needs requires a continual flow of new medicines.

Issued on behalf of the Pharmaceutical Industry Association of South Africa, PO Box 12123, Vorna Valley 1686.

For further information, contact Vicki Ehrich, Chief Operating Officer, PIASA, Tel 011 805 5100 or 082 453 4367