Staff Edit: A patent to saving lives

In refusing to give up its patent on a drug that would be used against a possible worldwide flu pandemic, the drug company Roche is putting at risk millions of lives for the sake of its company’s profits, according to a New York Times report.

Though Tamiflu, the only drug that has been produced to counter the fast-spreading avian flu, has not been proven completely effective, Roche should allow other drug manufacturers to produce a generic version, since its own manufacturing plants are not capable of handling the amount being demanded.

The Bush administration is placing the avian flu risk on its list of top priorities, and it should further pressure Roche to release its patent to other drug manufacturers, with the cooperation of the World Health Organization.

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan should not have stopped short of calling for compulsory licensing by Roche, and should enlist the help of world leaders in pressuring the Swiss company.

In the first half of 2005, Roche profited $450 million from sales of Tamiflu, according to the Times report, and not agreeing to release its patent can only result from an act of greed and lack of sympathy for the lives of others.

It reflects a similar attitude of drug companies in the 1990s, some of which received major profits from sales of expensive HIV and AIDS drugs because they refused to release their patents.

Reports have also emerged that Taiwanese scientists are capable of producing a drug with the same effects as Tamiflu, but are refusing to do so out of respect for Roche’s intellectual property.

While drug companies like Roche need money to invest into research for the next generation of advanced drugs, they should not put millions of lives at risk in the process, or make drugs unaffordable to the poor, as they are doing right now.