Stop AIDS Campaign celebrates creation of life-saving HIV patent pool

· Innovative initiative will be operating within a year helping to deliver vital drugs and save millions of lives

· Focus shifts to pharmaceutical companies to now deliver

A decision by UNITAID yesterday to approve the implementation of an innovative patent pool for HIV drugs was heralded as a great victory in the fight for access to HIV treatment by AIDS activists and NGOs today.

The pool should help to save the lives of millions living with HIV across the developing world who are unable to access the life-saving medicines they need. The ground-breaking voluntary initiative ‘pools’ HIV drug patents, allowing generic manufacturers to produce affordable versions of existing drugs and to develop new more appropriate medicines in exchange for a fair royalty payment to the originator pharmaceutical company.

Worldwide only 42% of those in need of HIV treatment currently receive it; the pool will help to tackle this, and deliver vital new fixed dose combination and child-friendly HIV drugs.

Stop AIDS Campaign Coordinator, Diarmaid McDonald welcomed the plan's approval,

“The UNITAID decision is a huge victory for those in need of HIV treatment around the world. It will help to break down the patent barriers which stop people getting the drugs they need to stay alive. UNITAID and the UK government should be commended for their leadership on this.

“The focus now shifts to the big drug companies. It will test the sincerity of their rhetoric on helping the most vulnerable in our world. Companies like Gilead and Merck showed real leadership within the industry by speaking positively of the patent pool; they must now go beyond words and contribute their patents to the pool. The pressure will be on others within the industry to follow or to explain why they are willing to turn their backs on an initiative with such huge potential to save lives,” he added.

The decision will see the creation of the legal patent pool structure in early 2010. It follows an 18 month Push for the Pool by the Stop AIDS Campaign to convince the government and pharmaceutical companies to support the patent pool. Over 25,000 people across the country joined the effort and the UK, who sits on the board of the international drug-purchasing organisation UNITAID, became early champions of the initiative.

David Bull, Executive Director of UNICEF UK, a member of the Stop AIDS Campaign, said, “Only 38% of HIV positive children under 15 in the developing world get the drugs they need. Without treatment half of all children born with HIV will die before their second birthday. We hope that GSK will join the UNITAID patent pool so that new child-friendly drugs can be developed for all HIV positive children.”

The patent pool will help to tackle a growing crisis in the AIDS pandemic. HIV becomes resistant to treatment over time and those on treatment need to move onto newer, more effective drugs. Patent laws mean that these second-line drugs are many times more expensive than the older first-line medication. Currently 97% of those on treatment in the developing world are on first-line drugs. As more and more need the newer drugs to stay healthy, the cost becomes impossible for the developing countries to cover. The patent pool will foster generic competition to bring these prices down to a sustainable level.

UK International Development Minister, Mike Foster, said:

"The international community is at a crossroads in meeting the demand for HIV treatment. Last year 2.7 million people were newly infected with HIV and 2 million people died from AIDS - the need to make effective HIV medicines affordable for developing countries has never been greater. The UNITAID patent pool could be a key means of addressing the treatment crisis and the UK government welcomes today's decision as an important step forward in taking action now to save millions of lives in the future."

Anton Kerr of the International AIDS Alliance also welcomed the decision and added,

“The generic competition the patent pool generates has been proven time and again to be the most effective way of bringing down prices and increasing access. Along with the current legal structures which allow developing countries to issue compulsory licences to produce HIV drugs, if we see renewed funding commitments to the Global Fund and a patent pool supported by industry, the goal of universal access starts to look a little more realistic again.”

David Borrow MP, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on AIDS who recently published the 'Treatment Timebomb' report on the long-term sustainability of HIV treatment programmes also welcomed the move,

"The Patent Pool will enable millions of people in the developing world to get the HIV drugs they need to stay alive. I am delighted that the UK Government as part of the UNITAID board has decided to press ahead with setting it up. Its now time for the companies with HIV patents to help make it a success."

NOTES TO EDITORS

· 33 million people are living with HIV worldwide. Only 42% of people who need treatment currently receive it.

· UNITAID is an international drug purchasing facility which aims to address market dysfunctions which undermine efforts to deliver HIV, TB and Malaria drugs to those in need. The UK is a founding board member along with Chile, Brazil, Norway and France.

· The Stop AIDS Campaign is a coalition of UK-based NGOs and INGOs campaigning to ensure the UK delivers on its G8 promise to deliver universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support by 2010.

· International trade laws called TRIPS (Trade-Related Intellectual Property) give drug companies a 20 year monopoly over their new drugs. This has meant that life-saving drugs are priced out of the reach of those who need them across the developing world. The most proven means of reducing prices has been generic competition which the patent pool will foster.

Contact: Diarmaid McDonald – diarmaid.mcdonald@spw.org +44 (0) 7894455781