Pharma companies urged to join the Medicines Patent Pool to help end AIDS
6. December 2011
- Abbott, Johnson & Johnson and Merck to enter into formal negotiations with the MPP Foundation without delay
- Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, F. Hoffman La Roche, Sequoia Pharmaceuticals, the US National Institutes of Health and ViiV Healthcare (a joint venture of GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer) to conclude their negotiations by signing licensing agreements with the MPP Foundation as soon as possible
Following World AIDS Day 2011, when President Obama announced that the USA will work to end AIDS by doubling the number of people it puts on HIV treatment by 2013, the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (EAA) calls upon pharmaceutical companies to help achieve this goal by joining the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) .
The EAA believes that the MPP will help speed up the development of essential new fixed dose combinations, increase access to newer, more effective treatments, and help stimulate the production of paediatric formulations. As a result, access to treatment will be expanded in both an affordable and sustainable way. However, the EAA knows that the MPP will only work if key pharmaceutical companies voluntarily license their patents to it.
One year since the MPP was launched, the EAA is disappointed that only one multinational pharmaceutical company has so far entered into a legal agreement with the MPP Foundation. We warmly applaud Gilead Sciences for taking this first bold step, but we also note the limitations of the agreement, particularly with regard to the exclusion of certain middle-income countries from all or part of it. We invite Gilead Sciences to reconsider including middle-income countries as well as low-income countries in their agreement and we encourage all drug companies to include them in forthcoming agreements.
In light of this, we urge all drug companies to now do their part to address the ever growing needs in terms of HIV treatment. Indeed, with estimates suggesting that approximately 55 million people will need treatment by 2030 (the majority of whom will reside in low- and middle-income countries), we believe that governments, intergovernmental agencies, NGOs and civil society, religious leaders and the private sector must work together to radically increase access to treatment. In the light of new scientific evidence that treatment greatly enhances prevention, increased access to treatment is even more vital as the dream of an AIDS-free generation becomes a realistic goal.
However, to end AIDS, pharmaceutical companies must do more than simply concluding individual licensing arrangements with generic suppliers. This ad hoc approach is not sustainable in the long term. Pharmaceutical companies must now help create a new paradigm through the MPP which offers fairness to all stakeholders involved. The timing is desperately urgent, with 1.8 million people - 3 people every minute - dying from AIDS-related causes last year.
Therefore, the EAA calls upon:
We recognize these companies’ leadership in the field of HIV treatment due to their existing and pipeline medicines. Yet, with such leadership comes the responsibility to address the treatment and prevention needs of millions of people around the world. We believe that by not entering into or concluding negotiations with the MPP Foundation, these companies’ corporate reputations will be put at risk across the world.
The MPP has gained support from many governments and international institutions. Notably the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has called upon pharmaceutical companies to share their patents with the pool “without delay”. As a global network of some 80 churches and related organizations that represent millions of people, including people living with HIV, we ask pharmaceutical companies to consider all those around the world who, as a result of lack of access to their life-saving medicines, will die today and every day until universal access is achieved. And we look forward to congratulating them soon for helping to create an AIDS-free generation.
1 The EAA is an international network of churches and church-related organizations committed to campaigning together on common concerns. Since its inception in 2000, HIV and AIDS has been a key focus of the Alliance’s work. The EAA’s advocacy includes raising awareness and building a movement for justice within churches, as well as mobilizing people of faith to lobby local and national governments, businesses and multilateral organizations. Alliance members represent tens of millions of Christians around the world and include large international organizations such as Caritas Internationalis, World YWCA, Lutheran World Federation and World Vision, as well as large and small national organizations such as Madras Christian Council of Social Services (India), Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Mission, Christian Aid (United Kingdom), Presbyterian World Service and Development (Canada).
2 The MPP is an initiative by activists and UNITAID to negotiate concessions from the pharmaceutical companies on an international scale to license their products through the MPP. Multiple generic producers will then be able to access these licenses, stimulating sufficient competition between generic producers to drive down prices. The pool also aims to spur the production of generic combinations of medicines, where patents on medicines are held by a number of different companies.
The Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance is a broad international network of churches and Christian organizations cooperating in advocacy on food and HIV and AIDS. The Alliance is based in Geneva, Switzerland. For more information, see http://www.e-alliance.ch/
