E-DRUG: Voluntary Patent Pool and MPP: an assessment
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Dear E-drug readers
I am providing below the link to a paper on 'Making Covid-19 Medical
Products Affordable: Voluntary Patent Pool and TRIPS Flexibilitie'
published by South Centre.
Download the whole article.
https://www.southcentre.int/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/SouthViews-Chaudhuri.pdf
Abstract: The proposal of Costa Rica to create a voluntary pool mechanism
for medical products and technologies for COVID-19 has evoked huge interest
and optimism. WHO and Costa Rica have followed it up through a Solidarity
Call emphasizing the need for voluntary licensing on non-exclusive basis to
Medicines Patent Pool (MPP). The success of a voluntary pool critically
depends on the willingness of the patentees to join the pool. In a public
health crisis, boundaries of public policy must not be determined by the
patentees. MPP will work much better if the patentees are compelled or
induced to join the pool. International cooperation is important in this
regard. Highlighting the virtues of voluntary measures and promoting MPP
without adequate emphasis on the use of compulsory licensing and other
TRIPS flexibilities, actually weakens the MPP. In the light of the
experience of MPP, the basic objective of this paper is to analyse to what
extent voluntary pool mechanisms can be relied upon to make COVID-19
medical products affordable and accessible. It is important to appreciate
the achievements of MPP. But the constraints under which it operates and
its limitations must also be kept in mind.
Sudip Chaudhuri
CDS, Trivandrum, India
Sudip Chaudhuri <sudip1953@gmail.com>