Chile: Civil Society, Members Of Congress Urge Issuance Of Compulsory Licences

By Kim Treanor for Intellectual Property Watch

Representatives of Chilean civil society and Congress this week presented the Chilean health minister with a proposal urging the government to take advantage of international trade law and a newly passed congressional resolution to issue compulsory licences on high-priced drugs for hepatitis C and prostate cancer.

The proposal was made under the advisement of Luis Villarroel, director of Corporación Innovarte, a non-governmental organisation in Santiago.

According to an unofficial translation, the proposal acknowledges that Chilean law, as well as the rules of the World Trade Organization, permit the issuance of compulsory licences to protect public health. It also references the resolution passed by the Chamber of Deputies in January, requesting that the ministries of health and economy use their ability to issue compulsory licences to facilitate the acquisition of medicines at lower prices (IPW, Latin America/Caribbean, 1 February 2017).

Citing studies that hepatitis C may affect up to 0.9 percent of the population, and that prostate cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related mortality in Chile, the proposal specifically calls for compulsory licences to be issued for sofosbuvir, a generic hepatitis treatment, and enzalutamide, a generic treatment for prostate cancer. The brand name versions of these medicines, which are under patent in Chile, are beyond the financial means of patients, the proposal argues. If a compulsory licence were issued, a generic version could be imported into the country and made available at lower cost.

After receiving the proposal, Claudio Castillo, chief of staff to the minister of health, promised to have an answer for its authors within two weeks, according to Corporación Innovarte.

Kim Treanor is an intern at Intellectual Property Watch and a student in the graduate program of International Affairs at the New School in New York, where she studies development, trade and public health.