Pharmaceutical giant allows generic AIDS drugs

One of the world’s largest drug companies, GlaxoSmithKline, has said it will allow the manufacturers of generic drugs to produce versions of all its medicines for treating HIV and AIDS. Anchor Jeb Sharp speaks with Michelle Childs, Director of Policy at the Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines. Listen

Read the Transcript
This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

JEB SHARP: A slum in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, was the setting for a surprise announcement today. The speaker was Andrew Witty, chief executive of pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline. The topic, the drugs made by the company for the treatment of HIV and AIDS.

ANDREW WITTY: We’re now issuing voluntary licenses free of royalties, so with no charge, to generic companies who can now get on and manufacture their versions of our medicines, if you will, and make sure there is maximum volume available. So we’ve done this previously for what I call first-line HIV treatment, this is the first time it’s been applied to a second-line or more advanced treatment.

JEB SHARP: What that means is that GlaxoSmithKline is waiving its patent rights on several key medicines, and that could mean cheaper drugs for millions of people living with HIV around the globe. Katy Athersuch is coordinator for the ‘Stop AIDS Campaign-UK’, and she’s in Washington today. This sounds like good news, Katy. What do you think?

KATY ATHERSUCH: It’s relatively good news, but this isn’t really such a breakthrough announcement. Lots of other companies have already done voluntary licenses that Andrew was referring to. But the definite in the detail of the GSK announcement, it’s not only that the voluntary licenses are one company only, so weren’t necessarily lower priced. But also that this announcement has come on the day that the UK government has called on [INDISCERNIBLE] being set up by [INDISCERNIBLE]. And Witty, he explicitly said in the announcement that they would not be signing up to the HIV patent pool, which is for us very, very disappointing. I mean, to be honest, I definitely think it’s a PR stunt.

JEB SHARP: Why don’t you step back and just explain the patent pool, how it works.

KATY ATHERSUCH: Sure. So, the international drug patent facility called UNITAID, which is based in Geneva, but headed up by France, the UK, Norway, Chile, and Brazil, has set up a proposal to basically ask companies voluntarily to put their patents that they are non HIV drugs into a pool which would allow many generic manufacturers to make cheap copy-cat versions of those pills to sell in the developing world. And the other thing about the patent pool is that companies will then be paid a royalty fee from the generic manufacturers, so that they also get a benefit from joining in with the proposal.

JEB SHARP: So you’re disappointed, but is there something to be said for this announcement today? Will it save some lives?

KATY ATHERSUCH: It will definitely save some lives, and it’s defiantly welcome that they’re looking to do more, particularly in relation to children living with HIV. But it’s just a shame that when there’s such a great proposal of the patent pool on the table, that would really revolutionize access to treatment, and see many more people accessing these drugs at an affordable price, that GSK has not come forward and endorsed the patent pool, is very disappointing and they could go a lot further, and we called on them to go a lot further. There is, I’m, I rule it’s a PR exercise, some lives will be saved, which obviously is very, very welcomed, but more could be saved if they went a bit further.

JEB SHARP: Katy Athersuch is coordinator for the Stop Aids Campaign UK. Thanks so much.

KATY ATHERSUCH: Thank you.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.