Cries for compulsory licenses on flu drugs quickly follow on heels of Brazil’s succesful threats

Well, that didn’t take long.  On the heels of Brazil’s successful threat to assert TRIPs-backed compulsory licenses for popular AIDS drugs, many people are now claiming that the avian flu scare might warrant the issuance of compulsory licenses:

 “It makes sense to do something along the lines of what was done with AIDS drugs.” – Ira Longini, Emory University professor (avian flu pandemic modeling)

“If patents are in the way, the WHO should ask the manufacturing country to issue the appropriate compulsory licenses. The patent owner will receive royalties, but we will have the stockpiles.” – James love, director of the Consumer Project on Technology in Washington

Roche, the rights-holder for the drug at issue, Tamiflu, isn’t budging just yet:

“Roche … fully intends to remain the sole manufacturer of Tamiflu.” – company spokesman Terry Hurley.

Compulsory licenses under TRIPs, which have yet to be issued or tested, are certainly a controversial issue in intellectual property and health policy, and stand to become even more so as medicine advances and disease continues to affect people around the globe.  When these difficult issues are addressed, it will be essential to keep politics in the background to allow proper focus on the complex legal and scientific issues at hand.

All quotes are from this article.