Department for International Development 22 Whitehall London SW1A 2EG
Student Stop AIDS Campaign 7 Wootton Street London SE1 8TG
Dear Secretary of State,
Today on World TB Day, the Student Stop AIDS Campaign are staging a demonstration outside the Department for International Development to seek the government’s support for an alternative model for developing medicines. Under our current system Tuberculosis, along with HIV paediatrics and neglected tropical diseases don’t receive the amount of research and development (R&D) investment that is required to bring these multiple epidemics under control. The reason behind this lack of R&D investment comes down to the fact that medical research is not prioritised according to public health need but according to the potential profits that stand to be made. Poorer people don’t have the disposable income to afford expensive medicines and as a result their health needs get largely ignored, whilst the ailments of richer nations get prioritised even if the health issues that affect them are less life threatening. For example in the last 50 years we’ve had 1 new drug developed for TB, a disease that claims the lives of 1.5 million people a year yet we’ve had 14 new treatments developed for hay-fever. This is down to the fact that 95% of people living with TB live in low and middle income countries and in the eyes of the industry this isn’t an attractive market. Another issue is that our current model relies on patents to reward innovation. However patents lead to monopolies and, as a result, very high drug prices. Our most recent example of high drug prices is the Hepatitis C drug Sofosbuvir, patented by Gilead. The drug is the first cure for Hepatitis C, a disease that affects 150 million people worldwide, but at $1000 per pill only 1% of the people who need this crucial medicine can afford it. The other justification behind patents is that they encourage innovation but what patents actually do is privatise knowledge and therefore halt further developments. A recent study in Australia showed that less than 1 third of the medicines on the market had an ‘added therapeutic value’ proving how little innovation is stretching under our current R&D model. What we need is a system which: ● ● ●
‘De-links’ the market incentive to produce a drug from R&D Prioritizes public health need over profit And doesn’t involve monopolies ensuring that we have affordable medicines and that innovation is not halted.
More and more organisations are starting to develop alternative R&D models. One of these models has been developed by Medecins Sans Frontieres for TB drugs and is called the 3Ps Project. The model uses innovative ways to incentivise innovation whilst using an open collaborative approach that maximizes the advancement of new medicines through 3 mechanisms: Push: Funding to kick-start R&D into new TB treatments (such as grants) Pull: Prize funds to reward and encourage innovation Pool: The sharing of intellectual property to ensure that patents don’t lead to monopolies and maximum competition is achieved to avoid high prices and encourage open collaborative innovation. What we want the UK government to do: We really believe that MSFs model has the potential to deliver the quality, affordable medicines we so urgently need for Tuberculosis and that it could potentially work for HIV paediatrics and all neglected diseases, but we need to pilot it first. That is what we are asking the UK government to do: to be the leader in a ‘proof of concept’ project to pioneer a new R&D system which works for those who need it most. We want you to: Test it: Do a cost benefit analysis of our current system and the proposed one to see how the new model would function Prove it: To run a pilot project of the 3P’s Project to see how it would work in reality Do it: Lead the world in giving 0.01% of GDP to a global fund for researching and developing medicines for diseases of the developing world. This is a current proposal which is being developed by the World Health Organisation and is due to next be discussed in 2016. The UK has been a leader in achieving global health justice and we know that with UK support we can achieve the reform we require to have a global R&D system that works for everyone, leaving noone behind. Please don’t hesitate to get in contact with us if you would like to discuss this issue further. Yours Sincerely, Charlie Zhou, SSAC President Oxford Hannah Raval, SSAC President St. Andrews University University Isobel Morten, SSAC President Leeds University
Alice Howarth, SSAC
Ben Burton, SSAC President
Florence Goddard, SSAC President SOAS University
York Conrad WilkinsonShwartz, SSAC President Brighton Lotte Elton, SSAC President Newcastle Madeeha Bandukda, SSAC President Birmingham
President Exeter University
Mikhail Menezes, SSAC President Imperial Andrew Hu, SSAC President Sheffield James Robertson, SSAC President Dundee
Georgia Lamb, SSAC President UCL
Georgia Liddle, SSAC President Manchester
Gaia Croston, SSAC President Edinburgh
Roisin Begley, SSAC President Glasgow
Zhu Chung Che, SSAC President Aberdeen
Shayo Oshodi, Steering Committee
Harvir Braich, Steering Committee
Izzy Proctor, Steering Committee