MSF & Patents
"I am revolted when I hear claims that patent rights do not constitute a barrier to treatment here in South Africa. I have seen young men and women die from an AIDS-related brain tumour provoking unbearable headaches. I have seen children covered with scars due to AIDS-related dermatitis, unable to sleep for the pain. I knew that all of them could have been helped with antiretroviral therapy, but the cost of the patented drugs was the only barrier."
-- Dr. Eric Goemare, MSF, South Africa
-- Dr. Eric Goemare, MSF, South Africa
The magnitude of the AIDS crisis has drawn attention to the fact that millions of people in the developing world do not have access to the medicines that are needed to treat disease or alleviate suffering because they or their government cannot afford them.
The reasons for the lack of access to essential medicines are manifold and include logistical problems of supply and storage, substandard drug quality, weak health infrastructure and scarce financial and human resources. The high price of drugs however acts as one of the major barriers to access to medicines today.
The problem is by no means limited to HIV/AIDS – it extends to any new drug, diagnostic test or vaccine needed to treat, detect or prevent a whole range of diseases. All too often, life-saving health tools are priced out of reach of patients in developing countries – millions of people are, in effect, too poor to be treated.
Striving to get our patients the best possible treatment we can provide, Médecins Sans Frontières created the Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines in 1999. Part of the Campaign’s remit is to look at the political and commercial barriers that stand in the way of access to affordable medicines. Since that time, MSF has built expertise on patents and intellectual property rights, one of the major causes of high drug prices - not because we wanted to, but because we had to.
In this area, MSF’s Access Campaign seeks to identify the legal barriers that prevent us from accessing needed treatment for our patients, and explore ways to overcome them; to document the consequences of patents or other forms of intellectual property rights on drug prices through reports such as Untangling the Web, our yearly analysis of the price of antiretroviral drugs used to treat HIV/AIDS; to highlight patent abuses and disputes and other international developments that have serious consequences for access to medicines; to launch international campaigns to raise public awareness when access is under threat; and to encourage governments, the World Health Organization and others to implement and pursue sustainable solutions – both immediately and in the long-term – that overcome the barriers caused by patents, and help foster access to essential medicines for all.
Last updated: July 2011
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