E-drug: Attaran/Gillespie-White and PhRMA patent surveys (cont'd)
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[I just received the abstract of the article by Attaran &
Gillespie-White in JAMA. Copied as fair use. HH]
Do Patents for Antiretroviral Drugs Constrain Access to AIDS
Treatment in Africa?
Amir Attaran, DPhil, LLB; Lee Gillespie-White, LLB
Public attention and debate recently have focused on access to
treatment of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in poor,
severely affected countries, such as those in Africa. Whether
patents on antiretroviral drugs in Africa are impeding access to
lifesaving treatment for the 25 million Africans with human
immunodeficiency virus infection is unknown. We studied the
patent statuses of 15 antiretroviral drugs in 53 African countries.
Using a survey method, we found that these antiretroviral drugs are
patented in few African countries (median, 3; mode, 0) and that in
countries where antiretroviral drug patents exist, generally only a
small subset of antiretroviral drugs are patented (median and mode,
4). The observed scarcity of patents cannot be simply explained by
a lack of patent laws because most African countries have offered
patent protection for pharmaceuticals for many years. Furthermore,
in this particular case, geographic patent coverage does not appear
to correlate with antiretroviral treatment access in Africa,
suggesting that patents and patent law are not a major barrier to
treatment access in and of themselves. We conclude that a variety
of de facto barriers are more responsible for impeding access to
antiretroviral treatment, including but not limited to the poverty of
African countries, the high cost of antiretroviral treatment, national
regulatory requirements for medicines, tariffs and sales taxes, and,
above all, a lack of sufficient international financial aid to fund
antiretroviral treatment. We consider these findings in light of
policies for enhancing antiretroviral treatment access in poor
countries.
JAMA. 2001;286:1886-1892
Author Affiliations: Center for International Development and
Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge,
Mass (Dr Attaran); International Intellectual Property Institute,
Washington, DC (Ms Gillespie-White).
Corresponding Author and Reprints: Amir Attaran, DPhil, LLB,
Center for International Development, Harvard University, 79 JFK
St, Cambridge, MA 02138 (e-mail: amir_attaran@harvard.edu).
Author Contributions: Study concept and design: Attaran,
Gillespie-White.
Acquisition of data: Attaran, Gillespie-White.
Analysis and interpretation of data: Attaran, Gillespie-White.
Drafting of the manuscript: Attaran, Gillespie-White.
Statistical expertise: Attaran.
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