STRONGER PATENTS, MORE INNOVATION?
branded medicines against erectile dysfunction on the market, there are still no effective treatments for the potentially fatal parasitic diseases kala azar and sleeping sickness.38 The entire continent of Africa comprises just 1.1% of the global pharmaceutical market.39 In 1996, the WHO found that health problems which affect 90% of the global population in fact receive only 10% of the USD 56 billion spent annually on health research (‘the 10/90 Gap’).40 Creating incentives for research and development for new medicines is, without any doubt, necessary. The assumptions that patent protection alone would stimulate research and development for the particular needs of developing countries cannot be supported by any practical evidence. In fact, there is evidence that the incentives provided by the global patent regime do not necessarily address the needs of the developing world. It should be noted that India, a developing country, has managed to establish and build up its pharmaceutical industry in the absence of patent protection on pharmaceutical products (see Box 1).41
38
According to Johns Hopkins Health Alerts, the lifestyle market amounted up to about USD 23 billion in 2009. While this is still a small fraction of the global medicine market that was predicted to top up to USD 750 billion in the same year according to IMS it is a rapidly growing share that is mainly paid out of the pocket. See Johns Hopkins Health Alerts, What Is a Lifestyle Drug?, (2009), Posted in Prescription Drugs on October 6, 2009 www.johnshopkinshealthalerts.com/alerts/prescription_drugs/ JohnsHopkinsPrescriptionDrugsHealthAlert_3241-1.html See also IMS, Health Lowers Global Pharmaceutical Market Forecast to 2.5–3.5 Percent Growth, (2009), www.imshealth.com/portal/site/imshealth/menuitem. a46c6d4df3db4b3d88f611019418c22a/?vgnextoid=1e61fa8adbec0210VgnVCM100000ed152ca2RCRD
39
CIPIH, Supra 32.
40
Global Forum for Health Research. 10/90 Report on Health Research 1999. GBFR, Geneva, 1999, at 7. www. globalforumhealth.org/Media-Publications/Publications/10-90-Report-on-Health-Research-1999.
41
For more see Dhar B., Rao C. Transfer of Technology for Successful Integration into the Global Economy: a Case Study of the Pharmaceutical Industry in India. New York and Geneva, UNCTAD, UNCTAD/ITE/IPC/2003/6, 2003.
11