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Earlier this month, news broke that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology would become the first university to contribute intellectual property to the GlaxoSmithKline patent pool for “neglected tropical diseases,” diseases that predominantly or exclusively affect people in developing countries. The MIT announcement is part of a growing movement among universities to focus on gaps in a drug-development system that too often neglects the needs of patients in the developing world...
...While patent pooling may be a step toward opening up access to knowledge for researchers who wish to help people in developing countries, students at MIT have asked, “Is MIT doing enough?” Neglected tropical diseases are not the only diseases that kill people in developing countries: Heart disease, HIV/AIDS, and stroke are among the leading causes of death among people in poor countries. These diseases are not “neglected,” because they affect the rich and poor alike, and new technologies are being developed to treat them...
...statement but declined to do so, leading students to question whether the institution has lived up to its mission to “bring [its] knowledge to bear on the world’s greatest challenges.” In this context, MIT’s patent-pooling announcement appears to be an unsuccessful attempt to catch up with Harvard and other Boston-area academic-research centers in the race to deliver essential medicines to patients in developing countries...
...patent pool announced by international aid group Unitaid last December serves as another broad-based initiative to help the poor in developing countries. Whereas the patent pool run by GlaxoSmithKline focuses on research, not manufacturing, and limits its reach to the 50 least developed countries, the Unitaid Patent Pool will allow generic drugs to be made and sold across the developing world. The Unitaid pool focuses on HIV/AIDS therapies, many of which have originated at academic research centers. Placing patents in the Unitaid Patent Pool would be the next best move for universities wishing to support global health...
MIT’s announcement is an important step in acknowledging that creative strategies must be used to stop university patents from serving as a barrier to further innovation and access to essential medicines. Yet contributing patents to the GlaxoSmithKline patent pool is the least a university can do. Let us hope that MIT, along with other universities who have yet to join in a more broad-based commitment to global access, will soon get the message that they can do much more...