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Shvoong Home>Law & Politics>Politics - General>Brazil grants compulsory licensing for AIDS drug Summary

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Brazil grants compulsory licensing for AIDS drug

Article Abstract by: STDutra    

Original Author: Carlos Alberto Saedenberg
  • Summary rating: 5 stars (1 Ratings)
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This abstract was translated from BRASIL QUEBRA PATENTE REMÉDIO ANTIAIDS
When HIV and AIDS were first identified, the desease was devestating and the patients, who suffered terribly, would not
resist for more than 18 months. Today, the survival rate is eight years, with a much higher life quality. Effective medication, researched, tested and finally made available in the market by the big pharma is the explanation. Labs are private enterprises and was a shareholders decision to invest their money in such type of research - as a result of the extraordinary returns they expected to have. Therefore, stimulated by the returns potential and the fierce competition, the engines of capitalism were put into work. If the virus, nevertheless, was to hit only the poorest countries in the world, the medicine would have not been developed, once patients would not have the money to buy them and governments would not have the necessary resources or would not be willing to spend fortunes on that account. The fact that AIDS can indeed attack middle and upper classes in developed countries was decisive for the big pharma to take on research. As a new drug costs a fair amount of money, there only will be private investment if there is market to provide returns. It is not mere coincidence that deseases and epidemics which hit only the poorest are those receiving less research investiment. An alternative path wold be public investiment - national governments and internacional organizations. Yet, it is not only in Brazil that the public sector tends to be less efficient and productive. Solution might be creating a new market, where governments or the World Health Organization were to stimulate pharmaceutical multinationals by paying a certain amount of money for vaccines on a determined epidemics. Another solution is to grant compulsory licensing, so other laboratories may produce copies the patented drugs. It is a restring pathway, once it grants access only to drugs already in the market and also hinders research by the big pharma. It is so much the case that international law states that governments can only grant compulsory licensing in national emergencies or extreme urgency situations. In what regards AIDS, solutions were laid down so multinational companies would offer discounts for drugs, according to a few established criteria, such as a country''s income level or the relative incidence of the desease. By trying to harmonize profits and social concerns, therefore, pharmaceutical companies must make money in certain markets so they can offer lower prices in others. Such solution works only. Hence, such arrangement only works if the deseases in richer countries pay for the misfortunes in poorest nations. Brazilian president, Lula da Silva, announced last May 4th that his government was granting compulsory licensing for an AIDS drug called Efavirenz. He also said that, if necessary, the same will happen with other drugs. Such measure was highy controversial, once it tried to fit Brazil, classified as a middle income country, in the international criteria. Nevertheless, Brazil''s decision is supposed to hold in courts, once worldwide we may find an anti-big pharma bias. Yet, President Lula da Silva''s speech was quite reproving, once he said that it is not fair for someone to get rich at the expenses of other people''s tragedy. It is not about that at all. It is about rewarding investiments. Something that the Brazilian government should keep on doing, once the country will buy a Efavirenz generic made by Indian companies - which are private enterprises, not charit organizations. Brazilians will not make rich the patent holders, but the oweners of the Indian factory - who can seel cheaper medications because they did not invest in research. And the Brazilian government states that it intends do further innovation within the local pharmaceutical sector. There are good laboratories in Brazil and first class researchers, but they have to wait for the polititians to define priorities and allocate resources. "waiting for miraculous remedies?", asks the article''s author, published bu the Brazilian newspaper "Estado de São Paulo".
Published: June 15, 2007
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