MSF challenges Gilead patent application in China
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has challenged a patent application filed by Gilead in China, claiming that the rejection of the patent would “pave the way towards the availability of affordable generic versions”.
In an announcement made on Friday, December 15, MSF said it had challenged a patent application for the combination of two crucial oral hepatitis C medicines, sofosbuvir and velpatasvir.
“This combination is the first direct-acting antiviral treatment to be registered for use against all genotypes of the disease,” said MSF.
The challenge, which was filed at China’s State Intellectual Property Office, argues that there are technical grounds that show that the drug combination does not merit patenting.
MSF said that if the patent is granted, it would give Gilead the monopoly over production and sales of the treatment in China, and would block Chinese generic companies from producing affordable versions.
Mickael Le Paih, MSF head of mission in Cambodia, said: “Despite the deadly toll the hepatitis C epidemic takes, pharmaceutical corporations like Gilead still have far too much control over who can access these lifesaving medicines, which is ultimately costing people their lives.”
Accorrding to MSF, there are an estimated 71 million people who have chronic hepatitis C infection and, without access to treatment, nearly 400,000 people die each year from its complications.
China has the highest prevalence of hepatitis C in the world, with nearly nine million people infected.
MSF added that Gilead recently announced the market launch of sofosbuvir in China at a price of $8,937 per treatment course, or around $100 per pill.
In March last year, the humanitarian organisation urged the Indian Patent Office to reject a Gilead patent application covering Sovaldi (sofosbuvir).
MSF was supporting an opposition filed by non-profit group the Initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge (I-MAK), which argued that the applied-for invention is based on “old science” and is therefore ineligible for protection.
But the Indian Patent Office granted the patent in May 2016.
Earlier this month, LSIPR reported that I-MAK had brought another two patent challenges against Gilead over sofosbuvir.
I-MAK had accused Gilead of obtaining “unmerited patents” for its medicine and filed the “first-ever” US challenges against six patents covering sofosbuvir at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board in October.
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