Pharmaceutical Patents In The Pool

Several non-governmental organisations used the World Aids Day to promote the patent pool initiative underway at UNITAID that is expected by proponents to enhance access to second line HIV/AIDS drugs. Action Against AIDS, a German NGO, released thousands of balloons in capsule form over Berlin while handing over 28,000 to representatives of Abbott, Bristol-Meyer-Squibb and Gilead. The campaign requests from the pharmaceutical companies to give up patent applications in India to make way for generic drugs for the second line treatment. Doctors without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières) chose a more conciliatory standpoint, throwing an oversized pill into an allegorical “patent pool” in Munich on the eve of the World Aids Day. Doctors without Borders support the quick start of the UNITAID patent pool to allow for cheaper second line antiretroviral drugs and also combinations of substances of several companies. Commenting on the NGO actions and the patent pool idea, a spokesperson from Abbott said that the company thinks the patent pool would not provide better access to its substances Ritonavir and Lopinavir in Africa as the company does not have patents on these in Africa (only in South Africa), allowing for the distribution of generic drugs there.