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A strategic pause in the campaign

Thanks for all your efforts. We’re pausing for breath as we await the outcome of the key meeting about the patent pool on Monday 14th and Tuesday 15th December. The UNITAID Executive Board is meeting in Geneva, to make a decision on whether to fund and set up the licensing agency that would run the Patent Pool for HIV medicines. We will write back to everyone who took part in the campaign to let you know the outcome and where we go next.

Your campaign generated a huge groundswell of support for the patent pool, with over 290,000 letters being sent to drug companies to increase the pressure on them to put their patents in the pool. Support for the pool has come not just from you, but also from the pharmaceutical industry, with Gilead and Merck both saying they see the patent pool as having the potential to have a big impact on access to HIV medicines across the developing world.

We hope the board of UNITAID take note of your campaigning and do all they can to Make It Happen.

Global support for the campaign

Supporters have come from all over the world – we had an entire (amateur) football team signing up in the UK, patients groups in Europe, medical staff from MSF projects in South Africa and Liberia, and people in Japan, Mexico, Myanmar and Burkina Faso. Members of the European Parliament also signed up to a declaration in support of the patent pool. And fun was had drumming up awareness of the campaign through publicity stunts– first, members of the Access Campaign and MSF colleagues jumped into a cold Lake Geneva and then in Munich, MSF supporters enacted a short drama: Put Your Patents in the Pool.  

Responses from the pharmaceutical companies

As a result of your campaigning, nine of the ten drug companies targeted have been in contact with MSF to let us know that they have entered into discussions with UNITAID on the patent pool proposal. We, at MSF have also held face to face meeting with a number of the companies to encourage their participation in the pool.

 All who have responded recognise the need for access to low costs medicines and the need to develop new formulations and combinations. The list of drugs that Médecins Sans Frontières drew up for inclusion in the patent pool has not been disputed.  

The debate is shifting from whether a patent pool is needed, to a discussion about what exactly the patent pool should look like and which countries should be able to benefit from it. The Chair of UNITAID has stated that the patent pool should be for the benefit of both low- and middle-income countries.  It is very important that the principle of promoting public health for all people in developing countries remains the central guiding principle of the UNITAID patent pool. Several companies have been supportive of the patent pool in principle, with Gilead and Merck expressing particularly strong support. Others want more detail about how the pool would work and the terms and conditions for any licences.  Detailed discussions on the licence terms will begin in earnest if the UNITAID board gives the go ahead on Monday to set up the licensing agency to run the pool.

The campaigning continues!

We’re pausing the e-action, as the Board decision is about to be made. Once we hear from UNITAID, we will be able to assess what steps are needed in the future to ensure that millions will get access to life-saving HIV drugs…... Watch this space….

We’d also like to thank the many other organisations, activists and patient groups both in Europe, US and developing countries who have also been working to support the creation of the pool. Together we hope we have made it happen.