WIPO and pharma industry join forces to promote patent access
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has partnered with trade group the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA) to boost access to patent information.
The aim is to create a database aimed at improving the accessibility of information for medicine procurers.
Francis Gurry, director general of WIPO, and Thomas Cueni, director general of IFPMA, signed an agreement establishing the “Patent Information Initiative for Medicines” (Pat-INFORMED).
The online database, which will link public patent information to registered medicines, is tasked with helping health professionals to navigate the medicine procurement process.
Twenty research-based biopharmaceutical companies have agreed to make information available via the database.
Gurry said Pat-INFORMED will make it easier for procurement experts to assess the patent status of medicines, “underlining how a well-designed and implemented patent system incentivises innovation” while making available key information about patented inventions.
According to a press release from the parties published today, despite patent information being publicly available around the world, resources that directly link granted patents to marketed medicines are currently only available publicly in certain countries (such as the Orange Book in the US) or through private third-party databases.
Cueni added: “We can proudly say that this collaboration with WIPO shows the private sector’s initiative to propose practical solutions to reduce the complexity around patent information.
“Helping ease access to patent information for public health authorities can help them establish smarter procurement strategies, one building block of improved global health.”
The initiative is expected to be operational by mid-2018.
It will initially provide patent information for small molecule products within oncology; hepatitis C, cardiovascular, HIV, diabetes, and respiratory therapy areas; and any products on the World Health Organization essential medicines list that are not within these therapy areas.
In the second phase, the initiative will expand to all therapeutic areas and explore the inclusion of complex therapeutics.
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