Richard Gold E, Morin Jean-Frédéric
McGill University.
Université libre de Bruxelles.
Glob Policy. 2012 May;3(2):231-237. doi: 10.1111/j.1758-5899.2011.00110.x. Epub 2012 May 22.
It is a vast understatement to say that the problem of access to medicines in developing countries is complex. Access is limited by a range of factors including inability to pay, a lack of infrastructure, and corruption in some countries. Surrounding and exacerbating these structural and technological problems is the layer of legal rights created by patents and their licensing that complicate and render more expensive the preparation and delivery of needed medicines, particularly those that need to be adapted to the social, health and cultural environment of developing countries. This article provides a survey of innovative strategies that aim at maximizing the potential of patents to facilitate the development and delivery of medicines against diseases, the burden of which falls principally on developing country populations. To understand the context in which these strategies are being proposed and implemented, the article reviews the battles over access to medicines beginning in the late 1980s. It then surveys some of the principal suggestions put forward to better direct innovation systems in addressing the critical health needs of the world's majority including advance market commitments, patent buy-outs, prize funds, public-private partnerships and patent pools.
说发展中国家获取药品的问题很复杂，这简直是轻描淡写。获取药品受到一系列因素的限制，包括无力支付、缺乏基础设施以及一些国家存在的腐败现象。围绕并加剧这些结构和技术问题的是专利及其许可所产生的一层法律权利，这些法律权利使所需药品的制备和供应变得复杂且成本更高，尤其是那些需要适应发展中国家社会、健康和文化环境的药品。本文概述了一些创新策略，这些策略旨在最大限度地发挥专利的潜力，以促进针对疾病的药品的研发和供应，而这些疾病的负担主要落在发展中国家人口身上。为了理解提出和实施这些策略的背景，本文回顾了始于20世纪80年代末的获取药品的斗争。然后，本文审视了为更好地引导创新系统以满足世界大多数人口的关键健康需求而提出的一些主要建议，包括预先市场承诺、专利买断、奖励基金、公私伙伴关系和专利池。
