The South Centre has recently published the report “Global Activism to Make Patented Drugs More Accessible: An ITPC Case Study of Bedaquiline for Treatment of Tuberculosis”, written by Priti Patnaik. The report documents the outcomes of civil society efforts to address patent barriers affecting access to the tuberculosis drug bedaquiline, a key medicine used in the treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis.
The case study focuses on advocacy and legal actions undertaken by civil society organizations in Brazil, Ukraine, Thailand, Belarus, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova and Vietnam, countries involved in ITPC’s Make Medicines Affordable campaign. According to the report, these actions included 15 coordinated patent oppositions challenging secondary patents on bedaquiline.
The report highlights several results from these coordinated efforts. Patent oppositions led to patent rejections in Brazil and Thailand andJohnson & Johnson’s announcement that it would not enforce its bedaquiline patents in 134 low- and middle-income countries.
According to the report, these developments contributed to facilitating the entry of more affordable generic versions of bedaquiline, which is important for expanding access to treatment for drug-resistant tuberculosis. The report documents how coordinated civil society advocacy, including the use of legal tools within the intellectual property system such as patent oppositions, was used to address patent barriers to access to medicines.
The publication presents the experience of these countries as a case study of efforts to improve access to treatment by addressing intellectual property barriers affecting a key tuberculosis medicine.