Controlling the Intellectual Property of Medicine and Drugs Through the Power of Patenting

Nisha Kanabar 10R

Controlling the Intellectual Property of Medicine and

Drugs Through the Power of Patenting

Remember when you were a child and you went over to play at your friend’s house? When you were in his or her room and you saw that perfect Barbie doll outfit; that perfect little toy car that you’ve always wanted ever since you were five but your mother couldn’t afford it. The toy that you felt you desperately needed. Remember the urge that you underwent? To just pinch it off the shelf and hide it in your backpack, knowing that he or she would never miss it anyway, as they had never even used it? Then, remember the conscience that stopped you in your mother’s voice, telling you it was wrong and you weren’t allowed? This exact situation of emotions in adult life is experienced, except that the states of affairs are more serious. Information that people want or need is not available to the public, and instead of your mother’s voice telling you the consequences, you have the law doing so. This is due to the issue of patents. Patents are intellectual properties that protect inventions. In fact, the U.S Constitution Article 1 actually described this clause as the following: “The Congress shall have power ... To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries”1. The first official patent was established on July 31st, 1790.

There are several categories in which patents for inventions are classified. A specifically important means of patenting is the copyrighting of the advance in medicine and drugs. Medicine is the science and art of healing. 2It is a science because of its reliability on factual knowledge and is explored through cautious investigation and experimentation, but it is also an art because it requires tremendous skill of application of this knowledge to practice with casualties. Without the help of medical researchers, doctors would be nowhere. Without the investigation to find that prevention or cure, that potentially fatal illness could affect millions. Fortunately, to this day, scientists in the medical profession persistently search for improvements in the methods of fighting disease. However, the Medicine World is not that simple. Scientists and Companies that research these specific drugs for the world are slightly protective about their inventions. This means that patents are issued for their developments, and it is not possible for anyone to further investigate on their subject or invention of research but them, as “authors and inventors have the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries”. This matter presents a controversial issue around the globe, about the patenting of medicine and drugs. There are several views and opinions on the affair around the world, and it is a strong matter on each side. The issue does not only exist, though, on Medical grounds; the concern involves patents in general. However, patenting is slowly taking its steps forward, as people are becoming more lenient, and the patent-owners are becoming slightly more negotiable.

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For the past century medicine has made remarkable progress, and to this day, it is possible to cure, control, or prevent hundreds of diseases merely through New Drugs, Machines, and Surgical Operations. Unfortunately, there are several problems that are striding along with this lucky fact. As mentioned before, in Medicine, the question of patenting drugs is the largest topic. There are several aspects to this matter, and much debate on whether this is an advantage or a disadvantage. Before continuation, there are a couple terms that must be clarified. These are: 10An Innovator drug, “a drug that receives a patent on its chemical formulation or manufacturing process, obtains approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) after extensive testing, and is sold under a brand name”; a Generic Drug, “a copy of an innovator drug, containing the same active ingredients, that the FDA judges to be comparable in terms of such factors as strength, quality, and therapeutic effectiveness. Generic copies may be sold after the patent on a brand-name drug has expired, they are generally sold under their chemical name rather than under a brand name”; a Single-source Drug, “a brand-name drug that is still under patent and thus is usually available from only one manufacturer”, and a Multiple-Source Drug; “a drug available in both brand-name and generic versions from a variety of manufacturers”.

There is a large hindrance in terms of Innovator Drug Patenting that people of the world are taking into serious consideration. This is because of the accessibility of these drugs in third world countries. 11Patients are aggravated due to the high prices of necessary drugs, while pharmacists are trying desperately to get rid of their stocks before the medicines’ expiry dates. These are the general circumstances in an ELDC (Economically Less Developed Country). According to census by the WHO (World Health Organization), the average person in a developing country would have to work 215 days in order to buy a quantity of 13 vital medicines, while for example, a Canadian would only have to work eight days to purchase a set of the exact same medicines. Not only difference in work pay, but due to a data collection made by pharmacist Kirsten Myhr, the prices of medicines in Norway would be much more than the prices of that same medicine in Kenya, Tanzania or Uganda. In fact, the price for an innovator drug named ‘ciprofloxacin’ in Uganda cost more than twice the amount in Norway! The UN are not merely watching this happen, though. It is pleasant to see that there has been attempted action taken on this type of situation. The Patent Protection program is subsidized by the WHO and the WTO (World Trade Organization) of the United Nations8. In November 2001, the WTO countries signed an agreement called the “Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health”. This treaty affirmed all countries’ rights to supersede drug company patents, with the expectation that this will increase health and access to medicines for all9. This nonetheless was being possibly destabilized, because of the United States pressuring developing countries to accept a bad deal, in which the US proposed that the solution should be restricted to only medicines for a random list of diseases. The ELDCs saw right through this gesture, and denied it, but the US repudiated to dislodge. Resolving this dispute (the inability of countries that can produce generic drugs to export to countries that can’t) was a matter that all the WTO countries were arguing over throughout last year. However, the issue is still not fully settled, and will definitely take quite a while to sort out.

Drug Discovery and development of innovator drugs is an extremely time consuming and expensive field. It has been reported, that on average, this process takes 12-15 years, and costs an estimated half a billion dollars for every New Drug that enters the market8. It is also said that New Drugs are able to be imitated quickly and rather cheaply. This is a good incentive on the advantages of Patents in Medicine, and specifically, Drugs. Without patents, this would get out of control and brilliant scientist will not be accepted as brilliant scientists anymore due to another individual’s cheap reproduction. Therefore, the original inventor would lose money, time, and morale. This is a good advantage of the Patent Protection Program.

8Nevertheless, a major concern that is flooding the Medicinal Patenting issue is the matter of HIV Control Drugs. Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) has been expressed as “the most dramatic, pervasive and tragic pandemic in recent history”. HIV is related to AIDS, and is a grave condition in which the body’s natural resistance and protection against illnesses are disabled. Millions of people around the world are suffering from AIDS. The case is an extreme severity, though, in developing countries. By 2010, it is estimated that around 44 million children will have lost at least one parent to this fatal disease. Life expectancy of countries is dropping, such as Botswana, whose life expectancy is at 39 years. In general, if this problem continues to persist, it could cause peril to an ELDCs’ developing economy. In 1998, however, there showed signs of hope, when the United States’ number of deaths due to AIDS declined. This was because of a discovery made in science for treating HIV. The only problem was, that the prices were beyond reach for the majority of the HIV positive casualties around the world, particularly the people in developing countries. This became a major problem as most of the sufferers of AIDS were the people who could afford it the least. The average price of these medicines in developed countries is $10-15000! Obviously, the reason that the prices are so high is because they are patented. Although these issues are being tackled at present, the points of patents on drugs in general are basically made.

Throughout this piece I had made statements through facts from sources. Not once have I given my own direct opinion. I find it, however, very clear on whether the access of medicine should be free or not. When I think of the prices on some of those medicines that people must be spending a fortune on every year, I wonder in disbelief. However, then I realized the reason. The Patenting of all these drugs and medicines is a definite monopoly. Although this is illegal, it seems to be very much within the law of patenting. Despite this repellent fact, I believe that to a certain extent, yes, Medicine Patenting should be activated, otherwise the hard work of the scientist will definitely be undermined and this would not do well to justice. Nonetheless, this extent, I feel, should not be very large. In fact, less than half, as countries that have necessary needs for it require these Medicines for their health. This should not be a problem, since what is the purpose of researching and inventing? To make the world a better place for civilization, of course, and if this act of being supportive to less fortunate countries isn’t qualified as good humanity, then I don’t know what is. I regret to say that people don’t seem to understand that the countries that need these inventions the most are the ones that are seeing the least of them.

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