Brazil to Break AIDS Drug Patent
I have been conducting research primarily on AIDS in Africa, and found this topic especially interesting, since it can open the door for other countries to purchase more affordable drugs that the poor simply have been without.
I am interested in learning a bit more about Brazil's healthcare system, especially if they are able to provide free medications.
Here's a blurb from an MSNBC article too:
Ballooning costs
While AIDS activists applauded the move, the U.S.-Brazil Business Council denounced the move as a step backward.
“Just days after Brazil was recognized for improving its enforcement of intellectual property rights, this is a major step backward for the country’s development. Brazil is working to attract investment in innovative industries that rely on IP, and this move will likely cause investments to go elsewhere,” the council said in a statement.
Although Brazil had threatened to bypass drug patents in the past, the country had always reached a last-minute agreement with drug manufacturers.Brazil provides free AIDS drugs to anyone who needs them and manufactures generic versions of several drugs that were in production before Brazil enacted an intellectual property law in 1997 to join the WTO.
But as newer drugs have emerged, costs ballooned and health officials warned that without deep discounts, they would be forced to issue compulsory licenses.
Efavirenz is used by 75,000 of the 180,000 Brazilians who receive free AIDS drugs from the government. The drug currently costs about the government about $580 per patient per year.
The Health Ministry says that a generic version of efavirenz would save the government some $240 million between now and 2012, when Merck’s patent expires.
posted by Dave at 11:23 AM
3 Comments:
This is indeed, a big move. I remember studying the AIDS crisis in Brazil for my "Biology of AIDS" class, and while Brazil struggles with the AIDS epidemic (moreso than most countries) I remember reading about how their AIDS/HIV treatment is among the best in the world. If you want to learn more...there's an informative documentary out there that I watched in my Biology of AIDS class that dealed solely with the AIDS crisis in Brazil. I'll try and remember the name, and post it back on here if I can.
Aha...
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v49/i40/40b01401.htm
It was a special that appeared on HBO four years ago called Pandemic: Facing AIDS. It actually involved the story of five countries and their struggles with the disease, each with half hour segments.
Here's an excerpt from the link I posted above, in regards to AIDS in Brazil.
"Brazil. An AIDS success story, Brazil leads all other countries with regard to integrated prevention-and-treatment efforts. The rate of HIV infection has dropped significantly over the past few years. According to the most recent edition of Brazil's Epidemiological Bulletin, only 7,361 new cases of HIV disease were registered in the first nine months of 2001, compared with the 17,504 cases registered in 2000. Like everyone living with HIV in Brazil, the film's subject, Alex, a young gay man in treatment and just beginning to rebuild his life, has access to free medical care. He can speak of living with, rather than dying of, AIDS. Too often we're led to believe that money is the only obstacle to treatment, but Brazil makes clear that enlightened policy is just as crucial."
thanks for the info Eduardo. I am working on a project about AIDS in Africa, and this helps a lot.
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