The Report of the Commission on Intellectual Property, Innovation and Public Health(CIPIH) entitled "Public health: innovation and intellectual property rights" was published earlier in April. This independent Commission was established by the WHO but do not represent the views of the WHO.
The CIPIH report presents a wealth of evidence in support of the view that the current system of drug development is fundamentally flawed because of its reliance on patents and commercial incentives for the priority setting and financing of medical research and development (R&D).
“The CIPIH report clearly signals that innovation is meaningless if the people who need it do not have access to it,” said Ellen ‘t Hoen, Director of Policy and Advocacy at MSF’s Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines.
The report concludes that intellectual property is irrelevant in stimulating innovation for many of the diseases affecting people in developing countries, where patients have limited purchasing power.
Further, the report draws attention to the fact that patents can actually hamper innovation, by blocking follow-on research or access to research tools. It also points out that even in regions with strong intellectual property, innovation results are declining.
Crucially, the report also warns against trade agreements that include excessive IP protection “that may reduce access to medicines in developing countries”, and analyses the various tools at governments’ disposal to counter this crisis of access to medicines.
MSF wishes to ensure that the report’s analysis on the impact of intellectual property (IP) on access to medicines is not lost to follow-up, and that its conclusions and recommendations are acted upon in a determined manner -
“One message that comes through loud and clear from the report is that governments have to be proactive and ensure that health R&D does meet the needs of patients, and that newly developed products are accessible and affordable to those that need them”.
The message was heard by the World Health Assembly 2006 who adopted a resolution which calls on governments to act to boost innovative research and development (R&D) of medicines.
