GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK) is to adopt a graduated approach to patenting its medicines, depending on the wealth of different countries, to make drugs more affordable in the developing world.
Britain’s biggest drugmaker on Thursday said it would not file patents in low-income states, leaving the way clear for generic companies to make cheap copies of its drugs without fear of being sued.
For lower middle-income countries, GSK will seek patents, but it aims to strike licence deals that allow supplies of generic versions of its medicines for 10 years. These licences are expected to earn GSK a “small” sales royalty.
Together, the moves will cover about 85 countries with a combined population of more than 2 billion.
The company will continue to seek full patent protection in high and upper middle-income countries, as well as members of the G20 major economies, including China, Brazil and India.
It is the latest move by the pharmaceuticals industry to address criticism that many new drugs are too expensive for billions of people in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
GSK chief executive Andrew Witty has long been a proponent of improving drug access and the initiative may consolidate his reputation in the field before he steps down as chief executive next year.
Raymond Hill, former president of the British Pharmacological Society and visiting professor at Imperial College London, said it was a brave step.
“It sets a precedent for other major multinational pharma companies to follow,” he said.
The wider industry has increasingly adopted a policy of tiered pricing for poor countries, but the decision to waive patent rights in certain areas goes a step further in opening the door to competition.
Witty said patent protection remained vital for rewarding investment in research, but more flexibility was needed.
“We are trying to put together an approach which is right for the right stage of maturity of the country,” he told reporters.
The initiative is expected to have only minimal impact on GSK’s group earnings, given the limited sales and profits generated in poor countries.
In addition, GSK said it intended to give developing countries access to its next-generation cancer drugs by allowing competitors access to the company’s intellectual property through the UN-backed Medicines Patent Pool (MPP).
Knowledge Ecology International, a non-profit group working to curb intellectual property barriers, said the move was welcome as access to cancer drugs was far more unequal than for HIV and hepatitis treatments, two areas where MPP is already active.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained