in 2002 a group of treatment activists
met to discuss the early development of
the airplane the Wright brothers in the
beginning of the last century had for
the first time managed to make one of
those devices fly they also had taken
out numerous patents on essential parts
of the airplane they were not the only
ones that was common practice in the
industry and those who helped patterns
on airplanes were defending them
fiercely ensuing competitors left and
right this actually wasn't so great for
the development of the aviation industry
and this was at the time that in
particular the US government was
interested in ramping up the production
of military airplanes so there was a bit
of a conflict there the US government
decided to take action and force those
patent holders to make their patents
available to share with others to enable
the production of of airplanes so what
is this got to do with this in 2002
Nelson aroma a Kenyan social scientist
discovered he had HIV and needed access
to treatment he was told that a cure did
not exist AIDS he heard was lethal and
treatment was not offered this was at a
time that treatment actually existed in
rich countries aids had become a chronic
disease people in our countries here in
Europe in North America were living with
HIV healthy lives not so for Nelson he
wasn't rich enough and not so for his
three-year-old son he discovered a year
later also had HIV Nelson decide
to become a treatment activist and join
up with other groups in 2002 they were
facing a different battle prices for a
rvs the drugs needed to treat HIV cost
about 12,000 per patient per year the
patents on those drugs were held by a
number of western pharmaceutical
companies that were not necessarily
willing to make those patterns available
when you have a patent you can exclude
anyone else from making from from
producing or making low-cost versions
for example available of those of those
medications clearly this led to patent
wars breaking out all over the globe
luckily those patterns did not exist
everywhere there were countries that did
not recognize pharmaceutical product
patterns such as India and Indian
pharmaceutical companies started to
produce so-called generic versions
low-cost copies of antiretroviral
medicines and make them develop
available in the developing world and
within a year the price had come down
from ten thousand dollars per patient
per year to three hundred and fifty
dollars per patient per year and today
that saying triple pill cocktail is
available for sixty dollars per patient
per year and of course that started to
have an enormous effect on the number of
people who could afford access to those
medicines treatment programs became
possible funding became available and
the number of people on antiretroviral
drugs started to increase very rapidly
today eight million people have access
to antiretroviral drugs 34 million are
infected with HIV never has this number
been so high but actually this is good
news because what it means is people
stop dying people who have access to
these drugs stop dying and
something else they also stopped passing
on the virus this is fairly recent
science that has shown that what it
means is we have the tools to break the
back of this epidemic so what's the
problem well things have changed first
of all the rules have changed today all
countries are obliged to provide patents
for pharmaceuticals that lasts at least
20 years this is as a result of the
intellectual property rules of the World
Trade Organization so what India did is
no longer possible second the practice
of patent holding companies have changed
here you see the patent practices before
the World Trade organization's rules
before 95 for antiretroviral drugs this
is what you see today and this is in
developing countries so what that means
is unless we do something deliberate and
unless we do something now we will very
soon be faced with another drug price
crisis because new drugs are developed
new drugs go to market but these
medicines are patented in a much wider
range of countries so unless we act
unless we do something today we will
soon be faced with some have termed the
treatment time own it isn't only the
number of drugs that are patented
there's something else that can really
scare generic manufacturers away this
shows you a patent landscape this is the
landscape of what medicine so you can
imagine that if you are a generic
company about to decide whether to
invest in the development of this
product unless you know that the
licenses to these patterns are actually
going to be available you will probably
choose to do something else again
deliberate action is needed so surely
if a patent pool could be established to
ramp up the production of military
airplanes we should be able to do
something similar to tackle the hiv/aids
epidemic and we did in 2010 unit 8
established the medicines patent pool
for HIV and this is how it works patent
holders inventors that develop new
medicines patent those inventions but
make those patterns available to the
medicines patent pool the medicines
patent pool then license those out to
ever need access to those patterns that
can be generic manufacturers it can also
be known for profit drug development
agencies for example those manufacturers
can then sell those medicines had much
lower costs to people who need access to
them to treatment programs that need
access to them they pay royalties over
the sales to the patent holder so they
are remunerated for sharing their
intellectual property there is one key
difference with the airplane patent pool
the medicines patent pool is a voluntary
mechanism the airplane patent holders
were not left a choice whether they
licensed their patents or not they were
forced to do so and that is something
that the medicine spaten pool cannot do
it relies on the willingness of
pharmaceutical companies to license
their patents and make them available
for others for others to use today
nelson aroma is healthy he has access to
antiretroviral drugs his son will soon
be 14 years old Nelson is a member of
the expert advisory group of the
medicines patent pool
and he told me not so long ago on we
rely in Kenya and in many other
countries on the medicines patent pool
to make sure that new medicines also
become available to us that new
medicines without delay become available
to us and this is no longer fantasy
already I'll give you an example in
August of this year the United States
drug agency approved the new for in 18
medication the company gilia that holds
the patents as license license the
intellectual property to the medicines
patent pool the pool is already working
today two months later with generic
manufacturers to make sure that this
product can go to market at low cost
where and when it is needed this is
unprecedented this has never been done
before the rule is about a 10 year delay
for a new product to go to market in
developing countries if at all this has
never been seen before Nelson's
expectations are very high and quite
rightly so he and his son will need
access to the next generation
antiretrovirals and the next throughout
their lifetime so that he and many
others in Kenya and other countries can
continue to live healthy active lives
now we count on the willingness of drug
companies to make that happen we count
on those companies that understand that
it is in the interest not only an
interest of the global good but also in
their own interest to move from conflict
to collaboration and through the
medicines patent pool they can make that
happen they can also choose not to do
that but they don't stir go down that
road may end up in a similar situation
the Wright brothers ended up with early
last century facing forcible measures by
government
so they better jump now thank you
you