PRIVATE PATENTS AND PUBLIC HEALTH

• For more information, see Chapter 3, “The practical application of
the Doha Declaration”
Some companies also engaged in voluntary licensing of ARV patents,
sometimes in response to non-voluntary measures by governments.
Licences, whether voluntary or compulsory, allow for the manufacture
and supply of generic medicines, even where a patent is otherwise in
force.
In 2010, UNITAID established the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) for
HIV medicines to ensure licences related to patents needed to produce
WHO-recommended ARVs were available to generic producers. This
created a predictable system of licences with terms and conditions
formulated to serve public health.
• For more on the MPP, see Chapter 3, “Medicines Patent Pool”
While the fight against HIV is not yet over, huge strides have been
made and continue to be made in scaling up access to life-saving ARVs.
The critical question now is whether the HIV story is one that will repeat
for other disease areas. Highly-priced medicines for hepatitis C and some
cancers have sparked debates reminiscent of those around HIV in the late
1990s. But the policy space that allowed the original HIV treatment
scale-up is increasingly closing. At the same time, new issues in patents
and access to medicines are emerging.
INTRODUCTION
• For more information, see Chapter 4, “Trade agreements closing in
on TRIPS flexibilities” and Chapter 5, “Pharmaceutical innovation
and access”
But first, we will take a look at the details of that policy space, starting
with the agreement that began it all, TRIPS.
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