[e-drug] Patent on HIV2 Preventing Licence of Rapid Testing (2)

[Gonsalves, Gregg <Greggg@gmhc.org>]

E-drug: Patent on HIV2 Preventing Licence of Rapid Testing (2)
------------------------------------------------------------

Dear E-druggers,

Here, for your interest, is a copy of a letter sent to the President 
of Bio-Rad Laboratories in connection with the issues surrounding
the licensing of rapid testing for HIV.

Gregg Gonsalves


January 10, 2002

David Schwartz

President
Bio-Rad Laboratories
Bio-Rad Laboratories Headquarters
1000 Alfred Nobel Drive
Hercules, CA 94547

Via Fax: (510) 741-5817

Dear Mr. Schwartz:

I am the Director of Treatment and Prevention Advocacy for the Gay 
Men's Health Crisis (GMHC), the world's oldest and largest AIDS 
service organization serving over 10,000 people with HIV/AIDS in 
New York City.  We believe that Bio-Rad is impeding the 
development of new diagnostics for HIV-2 by refusing to issue 
licenses to academic researchers and any other companies working 
in this area other than Abbott Laboratories, Johnson & Johnson and 
Chiron.  I am especially concerned about your intransigence in this 
matter because GMHC has been advocating for the past year for 
simpler, rapid and less expensive diagnostic tools for HIV infection 
for the developing world.  In West Africa, in particular, it would be 
vital to have new methods to diagnose HIV-2, in addition to HIV-1.  I 
understand your need to protect your investment in the HIV-2 
sequence, but I do not see why other licensing arrangements 
cannot be arranged that offer you future compensation for products 
developed with the use of your "property," as long as the prices of 
any new tests are affordable in the countries hardest hit by the AIDS 
epidemic. 

The current global debate about AIDS drugs prices has shown that
intellectual property rights are not absolute and that public health
concerns must be factored into any discussion about the integrity of 
such rights.  The prerogative of developing countries to produce 
generic versions of expensive, patented AIDS drugs has now been 
widely accepted.  Perhaps, a similar debate now needs to be 
initiated around diagnostics, using Bio-Rad's refusal to allow wider 
access to the HIV-2 sequence as the focal point of a worldwide 
campaign to foster the development of new simpler and less 
expensive diagnostics and monitoring tools for HIV-1 and HIV-2.

Yours truly,



Gregg Gonsalves
Director of Treatment Advocacy
Gay Men's Health Crisis
119 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10011
Phone: 212-367-1169
Fax: 212-367-1235
Email: greggg@gmhc.org


--
To send a message to E-Drug, write to: e-drug@usa.healthnet.org
To subscribe or unsubscribe, write to: majordomo@usa.healthnet.org
in the body of the message type: subscribe e-drug OR unsubscribe e-drug
To contact a person, send a message to: owner-e-drug@usa.healthnet.org
Information and archives: http://www.healthnet.org/programs/edrug.html