4. Some pharmaceutical data Global pharmaceutical market estimated around US$ 663 billion in 2007 80% of global pharmaceutical sales in the US, Canada and EU in 2007 According to industry, a new medicines costs around US$ 1 billion and takes around 12 years Less innovative: number of NCE per year has fallen from around 93 in 1960s, to 48 in the 1980s and 27 in 2000s Only around 5% of pharmaceutical R&D goes towards cures for diseases such as malaria, TB and others confined to patients with no purchasing power Cost of medicine around 17% of health care budget in most developed countries but up to 60% in the rest of the world
6. TRIPs and access to medicines TRIPs brought a sea change in IPRs for pharmaceuticals with important implications for access to medicines Pharmaceutical patents (Length /Type) Pharmaceutical data protection Compulsory licensing TRIPs not concerned with public health per se; recognised in principle (Art 8), but measures cannot be inconsistent with TRIPs provisions From 1995 onwards, there have been continuous efforts to narrow down TRIPs flexibilities through: Unilateral pressure Legal interpretation of TRIPs provisions at the multilateral level Technical assistance and design of IP laws at the domestic level 2001 Doha Declaration reaffirmed TRIPs flexibilities but the battle continues
7. The battle continues Continuous pressure when flexibilities are used Compulsory licenses in Thailand and Brazil (2006, 2007) Patentability criteria in India; Novartis and Bayer court cases US Special 301 list (from 2000 onwards, half of countries listed due to ‘inadequate’ IP protection for pharmaceuticals) EU introduced its ‘watch list’ version in 2006 The new IPR enforcement Agenda Generics and counterfeits: seizure of drugs in transit in Europe (20 cases during 2008) Anti-Counterfeiting Agreement (ACTA) negotiations
8. The battle continues All US and EU PTAs/FTAs signed up to 2008 contain TRIPs plus obligations TRIPs Plus provisions for pharmaceuticals in Preferential/Free Trade Agreements: Pharmaceutical data protection (exclusive right model, 5yrs or more) Patent term extensions Patent linkage (linking marketing approval to patent status) Limiting the grounds for issuing compulsory licenses Parallel importing (system of IP exhaustion)
9. Current EU negotiations Two key documents: 2000 Lisbon Strategy and 2006 ‘Global Europe’: Economic Partnership Agreements with certain African countries FTA with ASEAN (Singapore and Vietnam) FTA with Central American countries FTA with MERCOSUR (stalled) FTA with Canada FTA with India
10. EU-India negotiations (2007-) India seen as the ‘pharmacy of the world’; reportedly, around 90% of generic AIDS drugs used in developing countries come from India India amended its patent law in 2005 to comply with TRIPs Balanced provisions with safeguards against unnecessary patents; patient groups can challenge patents Key issues: Patent extension, 5 years (draft Art.9.3) Data protection, EU model 11 years, not accepted by India (draft Art.10) IPRs enforcement provisions (draft Art12-28) beyond TRIPs, applicable to imports, exports and goods in transit TK and genetic resource sharing not included