Do patents work for public health?

Q: Why did the CIPIH fail to deliver its report on time in 2005? A: The CIPIH had to deal with a very difficult issue: how to promote the development of medicines for diseases prevailing in developing countries. These diseases are neglected in industry’s R&D (research and development) budgets because selling medicines to treat them is not profitable enough. The CIPIH chose to cover issues ranging from drug discovery to delivery in the report. This broad coverage — which I personally did not favour — led to the consideration of many issues that were not central to the commission’s mandate and for which reliable evidence is limited, such as industry donations of drug compounds. There were also important differences of opinion among the commissioners that led to a lack of depth in the analysis of some critical issues, such as the differential impact of patents in developed and developing countries and in the report’s recommendations.