Pool medical patents, save lives
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0:01 - 0:06In 2002, a group of treatment activists met
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0:06 - 0:10to discuss the early development of the airplane.
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0:10 - 0:14The Wright Brothers, in the beginning of the last century,
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0:14 - 0:16had for the first time managed
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0:16 - 0:19to make one of those devices fly.
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0:19 - 0:22They also had taken out numerous patents
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0:22 - 0:24on essential parts of the airplane.
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0:24 - 0:25They were not the only ones.
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0:25 - 0:29That was common practice in the industry,
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0:29 - 0:31and those who held patents on airplanes
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0:31 - 0:32were defending them fiercely
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0:32 - 0:36and suing competitors left and right.
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0:36 - 0:41This actually wasn't so great for the development of the aviation industry,
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0:41 - 0:44and this was at a time that in particular the U.S. government
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0:44 - 0:47was interested in ramping up
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0:47 - 0:49the production of military airplanes.
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0:49 - 0:52So there was a bit of a conflict there.
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0:52 - 0:55The U.S. government decided to take action,
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0:55 - 0:58and forced those patent holders
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0:58 - 1:02to make their patents available to share with others
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1:02 - 1:07to enable the production of airplanes.
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1:07 - 1:10So what has this
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1:10 - 1:14got to do with this?
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1:14 - 1:19In 2002, Nelson Otwoma, a Kenyan social scientist,
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1:19 - 1:25discovered he had HIV and needed access to treatment.
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1:25 - 1:29He was told that a cure did not exist.
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1:29 - 1:32AIDS, he heard, was lethal,
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1:32 - 1:35and treatment was not offered. This was at a time
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1:35 - 1:38that treatment actually existed in rich countries.
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1:38 - 1:41AIDS had become a chronic disease.
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1:41 - 1:45People in our countries here in Europe, in North America,
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1:45 - 1:47were living with HIV, healthy lives.
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1:47 - 1:50Not so for Nelson. He wasn't rich enough,
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1:50 - 1:54and not so for his three-year-old son, who he discovered a year later
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1:54 - 1:57also had HIV.
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1:57 - 2:01Nelson decided to become a treatment activist
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2:01 - 2:03and join up with other groups.
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2:03 - 2:09In 2002, they were facing a different battle.
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2:09 - 2:14Prices for ARVs, the drugs needed to treat HIV,
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2:14 - 2:18cost about 12,000 [dollars] per patient per year.
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2:18 - 2:21The patents on those drugs were held
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2:21 - 2:27by a number of Western pharmaceutical companies
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2:27 - 2:30that were not necessarily willing
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2:30 - 2:33to make those patents available.
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2:33 - 2:35When you have a patent, you can exclude
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2:35 - 2:40anyone else from making, from producing or making
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2:40 - 2:43low-cost versions, for example,
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2:43 - 2:46available of those medications.
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2:46 - 2:51Clearly this led to patent wars breaking out
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2:51 - 2:54all over the globe.
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2:54 - 2:57Luckily, those patents did not exist everywhere.
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2:57 - 3:00There were countries that did not recognize
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3:00 - 3:03pharmaceutical product patents, such as India,
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3:03 - 3:05and Indian pharmaceutical companies
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3:05 - 3:09started to produce so-called generic versions,
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3:09 - 3:14low-cost copies of antiretroviral medicines,
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3:14 - 3:17and make them available in the developing world,
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3:17 - 3:20and within a year the price had come down
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3:20 - 3:23from 10,000 dollars per patient per year
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3:23 - 3:26to 350 dollars per patient per year,
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3:26 - 3:29and today that same triple pill cocktail
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3:29 - 3:32is available for 60 dollars per patient per year,
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3:32 - 3:36and of course that started to have an enormous effect
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3:36 - 3:39on the number of people who could afford access
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3:39 - 3:40to those medicines.
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3:40 - 3:43Treatment programs became possible,
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3:43 - 3:46funding became available, and the number of people
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3:46 - 3:53on antiretroviral drugs started to increase very rapidly.
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3:53 - 3:55Today, eight million people
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3:55 - 3:58have access to antiretroviral drugs.
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3:58 - 4:02Thirty-four million are infected with HIV.
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4:02 - 4:04Never has this number been so high,
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4:04 - 4:06but actually this is good news,
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4:06 - 4:08because what it means is people stop dying.
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4:08 - 4:11People who have access to these drugs stop dying.
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4:11 - 4:12And there's something else.
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4:12 - 4:15They also stop passing on the virus.
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4:15 - 4:18This is fairly recent science that has shown that.
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4:18 - 4:21What that means is we have the tools
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4:21 - 4:25to break the back of this epidemic.
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4:25 - 4:30So what's the problem?
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4:30 - 4:32Well, things have changed.
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4:32 - 4:36First of all, the rules have changed.
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4:36 - 4:42Today, all countries are obliged to provide
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4:42 - 4:46patents for pharmaceuticals that last at least 20 years.
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4:46 - 4:49This is as a result of the intellectual property rules
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4:49 - 4:52of the World Trade Organization.
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4:52 - 4:55So what India did is no longer possible.
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4:55 - 5:00Second, the practice of patent-holding companies have changed.
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5:00 - 5:04Here you see the patent practices
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5:04 - 5:09before the World Trade Organization's rules, before '95,
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5:09 - 5:11before antiretroviral drugs.
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5:11 - 5:14This is what you see today,
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5:14 - 5:16and this is in developing countries, so what that means is,
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5:16 - 5:19unless we do something deliberate
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5:19 - 5:21and unless we do something now,
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5:21 - 5:26we will very soon be faced with another drug price crisis,
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5:26 - 5:28because new drugs are developed,
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5:28 - 5:32new drugs go to market, but these medicines are patented
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5:32 - 5:35in a much wider range of countries.
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5:35 - 5:39So unless we act, unless we do something today,
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5:39 - 5:43we will soon be faced [with] what some have termed
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5:43 - 5:46the treatment time bomb.
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5:46 - 5:51It isn't only the number of drugs that are patented.
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5:51 - 5:54There's something else that can really scare
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5:54 - 5:56generic manufacturers away.
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5:56 - 6:00This shows you a patent landscape.
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6:00 - 6:04This is the landscape of one medicine.
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6:04 - 6:06So you can imagine that if you are a generic company
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6:06 - 6:08about to decide whether to invest
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6:08 - 6:11in the development of this product, unless you know
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6:11 - 6:14that the licenses to these patents
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6:14 - 6:16are actually going to be available,
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6:16 - 6:19you will probably choose to do something else.
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6:19 - 6:23Again, deliberate action is needed.
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6:23 - 6:26So surely
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6:26 - 6:30if a patent pool could be established
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6:30 - 6:34to ramp up the production of military airplanes,
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6:34 - 6:37we should be able to do something similar
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6:37 - 6:41to tackle the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
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6:41 - 6:43And we did.
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6:43 - 6:48In 2010, UNITAID established the Medicines Patent Pool
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6:48 - 6:52for HIV.
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6:52 - 6:54And this is how it works:
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6:54 - 6:57Patent holders, inventors
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6:57 - 7:01that develop new medicines
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7:01 - 7:04patent those inventions,
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7:04 - 7:05but make those patents available
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7:05 - 7:08to the Medicines Patent Pool. The Medicines Patent Pool
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7:08 - 7:12then license those out to whoever needs access to those patents.
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7:12 - 7:14That can be generic manufacturers.
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7:14 - 7:18It can also be not-for-profit drug development agencies,
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7:18 - 7:19for example.
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7:19 - 7:22Those manufacturers can then sell those medicines
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7:22 - 7:27at much lower cost to people who need access to them,
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7:27 - 7:29to treatment programs that need access to them.
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7:29 - 7:33They pay royalties over the sales to the patent holders,
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7:33 - 7:44so they are remunerated for sharing their intellectual property.
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7:44 - 7:48There is one key difference
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7:48 - 7:51with the airplane patent pool.
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7:51 - 7:56The Medicines Patent Pool is a voluntary mechanism.
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7:56 - 8:00The airplane patent holders were not left a choice
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8:00 - 8:01whether they'd license their patents or not.
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8:01 - 8:03They were forced to do so.
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8:03 - 8:07That is something that the Medicines Patent Pool cannot do.
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8:07 - 8:11It relies on the willingness of pharmaceutical companies
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8:11 - 8:14to license their patents and make them available
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8:14 - 8:19for others to use.
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8:19 - 8:24Today, Nelson Otwoma is healthy.
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8:24 - 8:28He has access to antiretroviral drugs.
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8:28 - 8:32His son will soon be 14 years old.
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8:32 - 8:34Nelson is a member of the expert advisory group
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8:34 - 8:37of the Medicines Patent Pool,
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8:37 - 8:39and he told me not so long ago,
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8:39 - 8:44"Ellen, we rely in Kenya and in many other countries
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8:44 - 8:48on the Medicines Patent Pool to make sure
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8:48 - 8:53that new medicines also become available to us,
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8:53 - 8:59that new medicines, without delay, become available to us."
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8:59 - 9:02And this is no longer fantasy.
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9:02 - 9:06Already, I'll give you an example.
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9:06 - 9:10In August of this year, the United States drug agency
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9:10 - 9:14approved a new four-in-one AIDS medication.
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9:14 - 9:17The company, Gilead, that holds the patents,
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9:17 - 9:21has licensed the intellectual property to the Medicines Patent Pool.
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9:21 - 9:25The pool is already working today, two months later,
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9:25 - 9:28with generic manufacturers to make sure that this product
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9:28 - 9:31can go to market at low cost
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9:31 - 9:34where and when it is needed. This is unprecedented.
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9:34 - 9:36This has never been done before.
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9:36 - 9:40The rule is about a 10-year delay for a new product
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9:40 - 9:43to go to market in developing countries, if at all.
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9:43 - 9:47This has never been seen before.
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9:47 - 9:51Nelson's expectations are very high,
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9:51 - 9:55and quite rightly so. He and his son will need access
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9:55 - 9:58to the next generation of antiretrovirals
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9:58 - 10:01and the next, throughout their lifetime,
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10:01 - 10:06so that he and many others in Kenya and other countries
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10:06 - 10:10can continue to live healthy, active lives.
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10:10 - 10:13Now we count on the willingness of drug companies
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10:13 - 10:16to make that happen. We count on those companies
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10:16 - 10:19that understand that it is in the interest, not only in the interest
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10:19 - 10:23of the global good, but also in their own interest,
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10:23 - 10:28to move from conflict to collaboration,
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10:28 - 10:31and through the Medicines Patent Pool they can make that happen.
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10:31 - 10:35They can also choose not to do that,
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10:35 - 10:41but those that go down that road may end up
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10:41 - 10:44in a similar situation the Wright brothers ended up with
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10:44 - 10:48early last century, facing forcible measures
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10:48 - 10:53by government. So they'd better jump now.
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10:53 - 10:56Thank you. (Applause)
- Title:
- Pool medical patents, save lives
- Speaker:
- Ellen 't Hoen
- Description:
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Patenting a new drug helps finance its immense cost to develop -- but that same patent can put advanced treatments out of reach for sick people in developing nations, at deadly cost. Ellen 't Hoen talks about an elegant, working solution to the problem: the Medicines Patent Pool. (Filmed at TEDxZurich.)
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 11:16
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for Pool medical patents, save lives | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for Pool medical patents, save lives | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for Pool medical patents, save lives | ||
Thu-Huong Ha approved English subtitles for Pool medical patents, save lives | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for Pool medical patents, save lives | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for Pool medical patents, save lives | ||
Morton Bast accepted English subtitles for Pool medical patents, save lives | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Pool medical patents, save lives |