MSF Report Calls On Governments To Repair, Remodel Biomedical R&D

Governments are urged to do more to promote the development of desperately-needed new medicines, vaccines, and diagnostics at affordable prices and address the failures of research and development (R&D) in a new report by Médecins Sans Frontières.

 Lives on the Edge: Time to Align Medical Research and Development with People’s Health Needs is the latest report released yesterday by the international medical humanitarian organisation’s Access Campaign.

The report outlines how and why medical R&D is failing to meet public health needs to deliver new affordable medicines and use scientific and financial resources efficiently and effectively.

In its press release, MSF argues that “Pharmaceutical corporations woefully under-invest in research for diseases that aren’t lucrative, while governments have failed to ensure that taxpayer-funded research addresses priority health needs.”

A broad range of policies aimed at changing the ways in which the development of medical products and tools is incentivised are examined in the report. Recommendations are also offered to ensure that medicines truly respond to patient and public health needs and are accessible and affordable.

Examples include that governments should apply safeguards and flexibilities under the World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) that enable generic competition to bring down high unaffordable prices and that along with other public institutions, governments could grant limited and flexible intellectual property rights to inventions licensed out to companies to leverage investments into publicly funded research.

“The old ways of conducting R&D for new medicines clearly no longer work – not for the poorest countries, and increasingly not for the wealthiest countries either,” said Katy Athersuch, medical access and innovation policy advisor of MSF’s Access Campaign. “We need to completely re-write the rule-book for medical R&D: it is time to try something new.”

Alexandra Nightingale is a researcher at Intellectual Property Watch. She completed her Bachelors in Law at the University of Sussex and holds an LLM degree in International Law from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. During her Masters, she developed a strong interest in Intellectual Property, particularly patents and the aspects relating to global health. Her research interests now also include geographical indications and trademarks.

 

Image Credits: MSF