E-DRUG: Argentina- Fundacion GEP opposed Gilead's patent application on
remdesivir
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Fundacion GEP has filed this week a patent opposition against Gilead
patent application on remdesivir before Argentinean Patent Office. GEP has
requested that the National Institute of Intellectual Property (INPI)
reject the patent application so as to prevent monopoly barriers that the
company is seeking to generate on this drug that could be a breakthrough in
the treatment of the pandemic disease.
Buenos Aires, June 4th, 2020. Fundacion GEP has filed a patent opposition
against a patent application on remdesivir submitted by Gilead, the US
multinational pharmaceutical company. Remdesivir, one of the medical drugs
now in clinical trial for its use in the treatment of COVID-19, is
presented as the most promising treatment so far.
In Argentina, Gilead has submitted at least six patent applications, in an
attempt to withhold technology by doing so. In the applications submitted
to INPI, the company tries to claim therapy methods that are not patentable
in Argentina, and by doing so, it tries to gain exclusive rights to produce
and commercialize remdesivir at unreasonable prices.
'Patent oppositions are legal instruments that allow a close collaboration
in the analysis of patent applications submitted before INPI, this office
is in charge of rejecting or granting patent rights by verifying the
legality of applications. Prior to the granting of the patent, the
Argentinean State has to analyze applications as well as the oppositions or
calls to attention filed by third parties, such as the ones submitted by
Fundacion GEP', said Lorena Di Giano, Executive Director of Fundacion
GEP.
By patenting their products, companies are free to charge them at extremely
high prices. Such is the case of sofosbuvir - a drug that treats Hepatitis C - for which Gilead set a price of 84,000 US dollars for one person's
treatment in countries where the treatment is patented. According to the
University of Liverpool, this drug could be produced for 100 dollars.
'It is clear that Gilead is trying to install the same abusive commercial
strategy for remdesivir, so we aim to prevent such behavior in
Argentina, in this pandemic framework of COVID-19', Di Giano added.
The Price that remdesivir will have is not yet known and it pretty much
depends on the monopolies Gilead could obtain in different countries. The
University of Liverpool has recently conducted a study that proved that
remdesivir, as well as other drugs under trial for the treatment of
COVID-19, could be produced at the cost of a dollar or less for a day's
treatment. This is key data when it comes to putting Gilead's speculative
prices under analysis.
Gilead has already shown its global commercial strategy regarding this drug
<http://fgep.org/es/covid-19-en-sudamerica-gilead-priva-a-440-millones-de-personas-del-acceso-al-tratamiento-para-coronavirus/>\.
The company is willing to transfer technology only to certain producers in
India and Pakistan, and has held the market in middle-income countries
- including all the countries in South America - to profit from intellectual property rights granted by its patents.
Gilead is one of the biggest multinational pharmaceutical companies and it
is owned by a society of a number of investment funds. BlackRock, one of
Argentina's biggest creditors in the external debt, is one of them. With
its headquarters in the United States, the company has the monopoly of the
production and marketing of remdesivir in 70 countries around the world,
even when this drug has not yet been granted the approval to be commercialized.
'Pharmaceutical companies are no longer laboratories where scientists are
seeking a health solution: behind them there are big investment funds that
speculate with our health. They are not interested in saving lives, but in
developing their products only for those people and States that can buy
them at the impossible prices they have under the imposed monopolies. We
have recently witnessed how this pharmaceutical corporation blocks the
access to medicine that saves lives', said Josa Maria Di Bello,
President of Fundacion GEP'.
INPI must urgently act and resolve as a priority all the patent requests on
remdesivir or any other drug or vaccine that shows to be effective against
the pandemic.
In Argentina there are legal instruments to guarantee Access to essential
drugs or vaccines for COVID-19, it is just a question of having the right
political will.
Maria Lorena Di Giano
Directora Ejecutiva FGEP
Fundacion Grupo Efecto Positivo
www.fgep.org
Buenos Aires- Mar del Plata- Argentina
Coordinadora General RedLAM
Red Latinoamericana por el Acceso a Medicamentos
www.redlam.org
Lorena Di Giano <lorenadigiano@gmail.com>