Patents

MSF calls again on J&J to withdraw or abandon extended patents on lifesaving TB drug as main patent expires in India today, opening door to more affordable generics

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MSF calls again on J&J to withdraw or abandon extended patents on lifesaving TB drug as main patent expires in India today, opening door to more affordable generics. Recent deal offering controlled generics access in limited countries does not go far enough.   Delhi/Cape Town/Geneva, 18 July, 2023 – As Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) 20-year … Read more

MSF to wealthy countries: Don’t block and ruin the potential of a landmark waiver on monopolies during the pandemic

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Geneva, Switzerland — Ahead of the next round of talks at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to discuss a proposal by South Africa and India to waive monopolies on COVID-19 medical tools during the pandemic, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) called on the wealthy countries opposing the proposal not to block it and ruin … Read more

Access to medicines: Will history repeat itself?

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Rebutting pharma’s rejection of a global COVID-19 IP waiver By Felipe Carvalho, Yuanqiong Hu, Leena Menghaney In response to the COVID-19 “TRIPS waiver” proposal submitted by South Africa and India for a temporary waiver from certain pharmaceutical intellectual property (IP) obligations at the World Trade Organization (WTO), Thomas Cueni, the director-general of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical … Read more

Access to medicines: Five people, five reasons we need to overcome monopolies on medicines

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Charles, Tobeka, Din, Nandita, and baby ‘Janey’. Four of these people have struggled for their lives. One of them has lost her life. All because pharma companies put profits before people. This is what can happen when companies get hold of patents and other monopolies on medicines and then exploit them to make money. The patents surround the medicine … Read more

People living with hepatitis C and HIV challenge evergreening patents on lifesaving hepatitis C drugs in India

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Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) welcomes two patent oppositions filed by Delhi Network of Positive People (DNP+) before the Indian patent office, challenging additional patent claims by US pharmaceutical corporation-Gilead Sciences for the hepatitis C medicines sofosbuvir and velpatasvir. These oppositions challenge Gilead’s patent applications for the tablet formulation of the fixed-dose combination of … Read more

Indian patent office delivers major blow to affordable pneumonia vaccine hopes

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Geneva/New York/New Delhi, 22 August 2017 – Hopes for improved access to an affordable pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) that safeguards both children and adults from pneumonia were dealt a major blow after the Indian patent office granted a patent to the US pharmaceutical corporation Pfizer for its PCV13 product, marketed as Prevnar13. “It’s unfair and … Read more