Große Erregung lösten in der vorletzten Woche die Versuche der US-Regierung aus, sich mit der Übernahme eines deutschen Forschungsunternehmens exklusive Forschungsergebnisse bei der Impfstoff-Entwicklung gegen das Coronavirus zu sichern.
Die öffentliche Empörung kam postwendend und brachte die Option zu Fall. Die weitergehende Frage dahinter bleibt aber unbeantwortet: Wie kann die Entwicklung von dringend notwendigen Medikamenten oder Impfstoffen tatsächlich für alle Menschen verfügbar gemacht werden, wenn das herrschende Prinzip der Patente auf Wissen nicht angezweifelt wird?
Dieses dicke Brett wird schon seit 20 Jahren in der globalen Gesundheitspolitik gebohrt, auch medico beteiligt sich immer wieder daran – auch am aktuellen Fall der Patentrechte für eines der wenigen aussichtsreichen Kandidaten für ein wirksames Coronavirus-Medikament, dessen Patent die US-Firma Gilead hält.
Gilead stand schon oft in der Kritik – beispielsweise für den Umgang mit „ihren“ AIDS-Medikamenten. Wieder einmal wird deutlich: nur wenn lebensnotwendige Medikamente ein öffentliches Gut werden, können alle Betroffenen davon profitieren. Patente töten!
Open letter to Gilead concerning ensuring access to remdesivir
30 March 2020
Dear Mr O’Day, Chief Executive Officer, Gilead Science, Inc
We write to request that Gilead take immediate actions to ensure rapid availability, affordability, and accessibility of its experimental therapy remdesivir for the treatment of COVID-19, pending the results of the clinical trials demonstrating its efficacy.
The COVID-19 pandemic has spread across all continents and, to date, over 720,000 people have been infected, causing more than 30,000 deaths. Making effective therapeutics available and accessible rapidly for all people based on their medical needs is essential for all countries to combat the pandemic and may save many thousands of lives.
We are seriously concerned with Gilead’s current approach to remdesivir, which may obscure access to this potentially critical treatment for COVID-19. Gilead holds primary patents of remdesivir in more than 70 countries that may block generic entry until 2031. Despite public health emergency declarations in multiple states and cities in the United States (US) since the end of February, Gilead still sought an orphan drug designation from the US Food and Drug Administration on remdesivir with the aim to obtain further exclusive rights in the US, and only applied to rescind this exclusivity after public criticism in late March. Recently, faced with an overwhelming demand for individual compassionate use of remdesivir, Gilead announced its inability to ensure timely supply and reduced the scale of the programme.
The COVID-19 pandemic affects every person. It is unacceptable for Gilead’s remdesivir to be put under the company’s exclusive control taking into account that the drug was developed with considerable public funding for both early-stage research and clinical trials, the extraordinary efforts and personal risks that both healthcare workers and patients have faced in using the medicine in clinical trial settings, and the unprecedented disaster all countries are facing for their people, their healthcare systems, and their economies. Gilead has a poor track record for ensuring universal access to lifesaving treatments and the company’s recent actions with remdesivir provide scant assurance that the company can be trusted to act in the public interest.
We request Gilead to fully recognise the scale and potential consequences of pursuing exclusive rights as opposed to enabling the scale-up of production and affordable supply of remdesivir during this pandemic. We therefore urge Gilead to take immediate actions to:
- Declare that Gilead will not enforce and claim exclusive rights on patents and regulatory and trial data, or any other types of exclusivity anywhere in the world;
- make publicly available all data, sample products, and know-how that are needed for generic development and for regulatory processes, to facilitate the production and supply by generic manufacturers worldwide; and
- improve transparency by disclosing its manufacturing capacity and existing supply and allow independent and proper governance over the allocation of the treatment according to medical needs.
An exclusivity and monopoly-based approach will fail the world in combating the COVID-19 pandemic. Gilead must act in the public interest now.
Signatories
Organisations:
1. Access to Medicines Ireland 2. Access to Medicines Research Group (China) 3. Action against AIDS Germany 4. ADIN (Africa Development Interchange Network) 5. AFT (American Federation of Teachers) 6. AHF India 7. AIDS Access Foundation (Thailand) 8. AIDS Action Europe 9. AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA) 10. AIDS Healthcare Foundation 11. All India Agricultural Workers Union 12. All India Drug Action Network (AIDAN) 13. Alliance of Filipino Workers (AFW) 14. Alliance of Women Human Right Defenders ( NAWHRD), Nepal 15. American Medical Student Association 16. ARAS - Romanian Association against AIDS 17. ARK Foundation , Nagaland, India 18. Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law & Development (APWLD 19. Asian Peoples Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD) 20. Associação Brasileira Interdisciplinar de AIDS (ABIA) 21. Bangladesh Krishok Federation 22. Centre for Health Policy and Law, Northeastern University, School of Law, US 23. Centre for Peace Education and Community Development, Taraba State, Nigeria 24. Colombian Oversight and Cooperation Committee (Comité de Veeduría y Cooperación en Salud - Colombia) 25. Comité des Volontaires Contre le Coronavirus Burkina Faso 26. Consumer Association of Penang 27. CurbingCorruption 28. DAWN (Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era) 29. Deutsche Aidshilfe 30. Digo Bikas Institute, Nepal 31. DNDi (Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative) 32. Doctors for America 33. Drug Study Group (Thailand) 34. Drug System Monitoring and Development Centre (Thailand) 35. Ecologistas en Acción (Spain) 36. Ecumenical Academy (Czech Republic) 37. Educating Girls and Young Women for Development-EGYD 38. Faith in Healthcare 39. Families USA 40. Focus on the Global South 41. Food Sovereignty Alliance, India 42. Fórum de ONGs AIDS do Estado de São Paulo (FOAESP) 43. Forum for Trade Justice, India 44. Foundations for Consumers (Thailand) 45. FTA Watch (Thailand) 46. Fundación Grupo Efecto Positivo, Argentina 47. FUNDACION IFARMA, Colombia 48. Global Coalition of TB Activists, New Delhi, India 49. Global Health Advocates France 50. Global Humanitarian Progress Corporation GHP Corp. Colombia 51. Global Justice Now 52. Global South 53. GNP+, Global Network of People living with HIV 54. Groupe sida Genève 55. Grupo de Apoio à Prevenção da AIDS - Rio Grande do Sul (GAPA - RS) 56. Grupo de Resistência Asa Branca (GRAB) 57. Grupo de Trabalho sobre Propriedade Intelectual (GTPI) 58. Grupo Incentivo à Vida (GIV) 59. Health Action International (HAI) 60. Health and Development Foundation (Thailand) 61. Health Equity Initiatives 62. Health GAP (Global Access Project) 63. Housing Works, USA 64. Human Rights Research Documentation Centre, Uganda 65. Human Touch Foundation Goa, India 66. IDRIS Association, Kuala Lumpur 67. I-MAK 68. Indonesia AIDS Coalition 69. International Women's Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific (IWRAW Asia Pacific) 70. IT for Change 71. ITPC (International Treatment Preparedness Coalition) 72. Kamayani Bali Mahabal, Convenor Jan Swasthya Abhitan Mumbai, India 73. KEI (Knowledge Ecology International) 74. Kolkata Rishta, India 75. Korean Federation Medical Activist Groups for Health Rights (Association of Korea Doctors for health rights, Association of Physicians for Humanism, Korean Dentist's Association for Healthy Society, Korean Pharmacists for Democratic Society, Solidarity for worker's health) 76. Kripa Foundation Nagaland, India 77. Labor Education and Research Network, Inc (LEARN), Philippines 78. Lawyers Collective, India 79. Lower Drug Prices Now, USA 80. Madhyam (India) 81. Malawi Health Equity Network 82. Malaysian AIDS Council 83. Médecins Sans Frontières Access Campaign 84. Medical Mission Sisters 85. Medical Mission Institute Würzburg 86. Medico International, Germany 87. MyWATCH (Malaysian Women's Action on Tobacco Control and Health) 88. Nelson Mandela TB HIV Community Information and Resource Centre CBO, Kisumu Kenya 89. Nepal Development Initiative 90. NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice, USA 91. NGO Forum on Asian Development Bank 92. NTFP EP Philippines (Non-Timber Forest Products Philippines) 93. Oxfam 94. Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG) 95. Pan African Positive Women's Coalition-Zimbabwe 96. Pan-African Treatment Access Movement (PATAM) 97. People PLUS. Belarus 98. People’s Health Institute (South Korea) 99. People's Action, USA 100. People's Health Movement, Uganda 101. Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation 102. Pharmacists without Borders Germany 103. PHM Germany (People’s Health Movement, Germany) 104. Pink Triangle Foundation 105. Project on Organising Development Education and Research- PODER 106. Positive Malaysian Treatment Access & Advocacy Group (MTAAG+). 107. Prescrire 108. Public Citizen 109. Public Eye, Switzerland 110. Public Services International 111. Red Latinoamericana por el Acceso a Medicamentos, Argentina 112. Rede Nacional de Pessoas Vivendo com HIV - São Paulo (RNP + SP) 113. Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary NGO, USA 114. Rural Area Development Programme (RADP), Nepal 115. Sahayog Odisha, India 116. Salud por Derecho 117. Sankalp Rehabilitation Trust, India 118. Sentro Ng Mag Nagkakaisa, Progresibong Manggagawa (SENTRO) 119. Sisters of Charity Federation 120. Social Security Works 121. Society for International Development (SID) 122. Solidaritas Perempuan (Women’s Solidarity for Human Rights), Indonesia 123. STOPAIDS 124. Swasthya Adhikar Manch, India 125. T1International 126. Test Aankoop/Test Achats (Belgian consumer organisation) 127. Thai Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (Thailand) 128. Third World Network (TWN), Malaysia 129. Transnational Institute (TNI), The Netherlands 130. Transparency International Health Initiative 131. TranspariMED 132. Treatment Action Group (TAG) 133. Treatment Preparedness Coalition in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (ITPCru) 134. Trisuli Plus Communtiy action Group, Nepal 135. Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) 136. Universities Allied for Essential Medicines Europe 137. Viet Labor Movement, Vietnam 138. Voice of Patient, India 139. War on Want (UK) 140. Woman Health Philippines 141. Women, Law and Development, (MULEIDE), Mozambique 142. World Vision Deutschland e.V. 143. Yale Global Health Justice Partnership 144. Yolse Switzerland 145. Youth Engage, Zimbabwe
Individuals: 1. Achal Prabhala, Shuttleworth Fellow and coordinator of the AccessIBSA project 2. Arjun Kumar Bhattarai, Nepal Development Initiative 3. Dr. med. Christiane Fischer 4. Dr. Hafiz Aziz ur Rehman, International Islamic University, Islamabad Pakistan 5. Dr. Mohga Kamal-Yanni MPhil. MBE. Global Health and Access to Medicines Consultant 6. Dr Prabir Chatterjee MD, State Health Resource Centre, Chhattisgarh (India) 7. Jordan Jarvis, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK 8. Kamayani Bali Mahabal , Convenor Jan Swasthya Abhitan Mumbai, India 9. Katrina Perehudoff PhD, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Canada 10. Marcela Vieira, Researcher, Global Health Centre, Graduate Institute of Geneva 11. Prof. Brook K. Baker, Northeastern University, School of Law, US 12. Tracy Swan, ITPC Global