War of words in UK over WHO patent claims

The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry has written to the UK newspaper the Independent to rebut tendentious claims made at the recent World Health Assembly (Marketletter June 5). In his letter, Richard Barker, the ABPI's director general, wrote that "the latest World Health Organization initiative has brought the debate on providing health care resources for the developing world full circle by trying to place the blame on the pharmaceutical industry and the patents needed to protect the incentives for the 10-year, L500.0 million ($921.1 million) process of bringing discoveries to the patient." The debate centers on the perception that is given in European countries that the drug industry is an obstructive force to the cause of bringing relief from diseases to people in developing countries.

The ABPI acknowledges that the WHO report contains many significant and positive recommendations, however, it considers that patents, and the allegedly high prices of medicines, are not the problem. The real bottleneck in getting treatments to patients is that developing nations cannot afford treatments, doctors, nurses, hospitals, transport and the training needed to help those suffering from deadly diseases.

Dumping cheap drugs on quayside is not good enough