{"id":19403,"date":"2017-03-27T08:25:38","date_gmt":"2017-03-27T12:25:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pmedicine.org\/epatients\/?p=19403"},"modified":"2017-03-27T08:26:22","modified_gmt":"2017-03-27T12:26:22","slug":"research-drug-development-news-european-public-health-alliance-joins-europe-wide-challenge-to-patent-for-hepatitis-c-treatment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/2017\/03\/research-drug-development-news-european-public-health-alliance-joins-europe-wide-challenge-to-patent-for-hepatitis-c-treatment.html","title":{"rendered":"Research & drug development news: European Public Health Alliance joins Europe-wide challenge to patent for Hepatitis C treatment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>An announcement today in Europe (press release below) brings a new angle to the copious US coverage of drug pricing, such as predatory pricing of the EpiPen and the smirking, seemingly\u00a0sociopathic Martin Shkreli. For the drug described below, the M\u00e9decins du Monde (Doctors of the World, below) blog says<\/a>, “While [this drug is] a major therapeutic advance, the molecule itself, which is the result of work by many public and private researchers, is not sufficiently innovative to warrant a patent.”<\/p>\n

That touches on\u00a0another hot topic in the US: the use and re-use of data from government-funded research\u00a0– whose data is it? Who owns the intellectual property? That’s what Vice President Biden spoke about (my video<\/a>) at Health Datapalooza last year, and it’s at the core of the New England Journal’s SPRINT Data Analysis Challenge<\/a>, which we blogged about<\/a> last fall – its winners have been announced<\/a>\u00a0and there will be a free live two-day web event<\/a> April 3-4 in Boston. That challenge arose out of a controversial editorial that said some people consider data sharing to be a “parasite” problem.<\/p>\n

Whose data is it? Whose IP is it? What are the rights of investors vs the people who have the problem, aka “patients”?<\/p>\n

\n

Brussels,\u00a0 27 March 2017<\/p>\n

The European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) is among 30 civil society organisations from 17 European countries filing coordinated patent oppositions on Hepatitis C medicine Sofosbuvir with the European Patent Office (EPO).<\/p>\n

The development of highly effective new treatments for Hepatitis C has been accompanied by outcry from patients and governments against exorbitant prices charged by the drug-makers.\u00a0 The patent for Sofosbuvir \u2013 the basis for Hep C treatments including Sovaldi\u00ae and Harvoni\u00ae \u2013 is held by American pharmaceutical giant Gilead. Patent-based monopolies and exclusivities encourage price-setting at extreme levels, such as the average EUR55,000 Gilead charged per patient in Europe for a 12-week regimen, in contrast to production costs estimated at less than EUR1 per pill.<\/p>\n

For governments in Europe, the asking prices are either entirely unaffordable or force rationing to a very limited number of patients at critical stages of the disease.\u00a0Patent opposition is a mechanism provided for in the European Patent Office rules, which can shorten the duration of a patent or remove it, if validated. This can pave the way to restrict the monopolistic price setting and to enable competition, including from generics.<\/p>\n

EPHA President Archie Turnbull says,<\/p>\n

EPHA respects today\u2019s medicine patents system, and with this filing aims to ensure that drug-makers play by the rules. The successful first patent opposition launched by our member M\u00e9decins du Monde (MdM) in 2015, vindicated their concerns that this is not always the case. Today\u2019s filing builds on this important precedent and is another step towards better access to medicines.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yannis Natsis, lead of EPHA\u2019s Access to Affordable Medicines Campaign reiterates,<\/p>\n

With this filing, we are questioning the grounds on which the patent was granted and we emphasize the possible non-compliance with the current patentability criteria. It is no longer off-limits to discuss these matters in Europe, particularly given the gravity of the access to medicines problems Europeans face today.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Notes for editors: <\/strong>
\n1) List of supporting organisations:<\/strong><\/p>\n