patent oppositions database: technology that helps in the fight for affordable medicines
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Who we are - MSF
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international humanitarian aid organisation that provides emergency medical assistance to people in danger in more than 60 countries.
Who we are – MSF Access Campaign
MSF rejects the idea that developing countries deserve third-rate medical care and strives to provide high-quality care to patients and to improve the organization's practices.
Through the Access Campaign and, in partnership with the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative, this work has helped lower the price of HIV/AIDS treatment and has stimulated research and development for medicines to treat malaria and neglected diseases like sleeping sickness and kala azar.
MSF and patent oppositions?
MSF and patent oppositions?
Successful patent oppositions by civil society in India have enabled us to use more affordable generic versions of key HIV medicines in our treatment programs, Dr Esther C Casas, MSF HIV/TB Specialist for Zimbabwe.
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MSF and patent oppositions?
MSF and patent oppositions?
MSF relies on affordable medicines for its medical work in more than 60 countries; in the case of HIV treatment, over 80 per cent of medicines used in developing countries are generics.
MSF and patent oppositions?
Drug companies routinely apply for patents or are granted monopolies on medicines even when these aren’t actually deserved
What is the patent opposition database?
The patent opposition database is an online resource where civil society can build on others’ experience and learn how best to challenge unfair drug patents.
Who uses it and how
• The legal expert - someone engaged in opposition work;
• The community elder- someone deeply involved in oppositions and medicine access issues;
• The researcher- someone creating landscape reviews;
• The patient groups;
Who uses it and how
• The legal expert - someone engaged in opposition work;
needs• To review other oppositions for a drug in
order to find prior art and arguments.• To review details of applications andoppositions to identify the patents tooppose for a drug in my jurisdiction.• To review other oppositions done in myjurisdiction in order to understand how to structure them.• To understand the legal framework relating
to patents and oppositions in my jurisdiction.• To showcase their work and experience.
I have to trawl many sources to findpatent applications and oppositions:can they be automatically linked toPODB?
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Who uses it and how
• The community elder- someone deeply involved in oppositions and medicine access issues;
needsTo see current information aboutoppositions to keep up to date on whois doing what, how and where.
“Like all networks, it needs stimulation and manual processing“
Who uses it and how
• The researcher- someone creating landscape reviews;
needsTo review all the oppositions for certaindrugs to see who is opposing what,where and how.
We need more opposition data!“
Who uses it and how
• The patient group;
Just putting two or three separate pills into one, or using known industry practices to formulate a drug, should not be considered innovative enough to warrant a new 20-year patent. By filing patent oppositions, we can highlight this information and the possibility of invalid patents being granted is reduced.
“needs• Guidance through the process of
challenging an unjustified patent. • To forge new alliances and share vital
specialist knowledge, as a patent application can often be challenged in different countries on the same basis
Successful examples• Opposition by Indian groups to
GlaxoSmithKline's patent application in India on the HIV fixed-dose-combination zidovudine/lamivudine, on the grounds that it was not a 'new invention', but simply the combination of two existing drugs. This combination is now widely used in HIV treatment in developing countries.
• A pre-grant opposition filed by the Cancer Patient Aid Association was also the spur for the rejection of Novartis's patent application on the salt form of imatinib, on the basis that the medicine was merely a new form of an old medicine. The move – which became the subject of an unsuccesful challenge by Novartis before the Supreme Court - opened up generic competition on the drug used in the treatment chronic myeloid leukaemia and brought the price down by 92 per cent from over US$2158 per month to $174 per month.
Where do we go from here?
Promote community engagement.
