Why you can't get the lifesaving drugs you need | Ellen 't Hoen | TEDxZurich

Access to medicines patents can be a question of life and death in the developing world. Global discussions have centred on how to prevent the "tragedy of the anti-commons," in which use of important drugs is off-limits due to the intellectual property rights while also preserving incentives to innovate. The Medicines Patent Pool is an initiative that goes beyond the discussion clearing away medicines patent barriers to increase access to new, affordable HIV treatment in developing countries.

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[spol]

I am a biologician from Poland. What uis it with the Pharma that is there for money making for the companies, rather than the companies for the patients. Lets do it. Change the paradigm. New drugs patent are needed otherwise no new meds.

[SADean-roxn]

This is a very important but complex subject that Ellen ‘t Hoen is presenting. As much as I would like to agree and support her emotionally, logically it is not as cut and dry. Pharmaceutical development in the United States, according to the FDA, is a five step process that starts with discovery and development in laboratories, followed by multiple rounds of research and testing, finally finishing with reviewing and monitoring for safety and efficacy. This process is incredibly labor intensive and costly. ‘t Hoen is suggesting the ability for pharmaceutical companies to patent their intellectual property to try to recoup the money invested in their research and development (R&D) of anti-retroviral medications is morally wrong. She is compelling them to share patents from benevolence, the ethical principle of beneficence. Beneficence in ethics is the moral obligations to not only refrain from causing harm, but also to have an obligation to help their others. We assume that the pharmaceutical companies exist to help others because the products that they develop are helpful, or benevolence, but they are largely for profit corporations. The concept of profit clearly conflicts with the assumption that their purpose is benevolence.
It is a compelling concept to help other for the greater good, but when you require it as ‘t Hoen suggests, it can often have the opposite effect. Pharmaceutical companies may refocus their efforts to more profitable drugs and illnesses and leave R & D of low profit medications to nonprofit biomedical companies. Whereas, “Recent evidence suggests that biotechnology companies are significantly more likely to experience a phase III clinical trial failure than the traditional pharmaceutical industry—74% compared with 5%”. (Czerepak A, Ryser S. Drug approvals and failures: implications for alliances. Nat Rev Drug Discov. 2008;7:197–198). This suggests that this may actually be a waste of resources and be harmful in the long run.