Through Resolution 881 of 2023, the Ministry of Health seeks to start ex officio “the administrative procedure for declaring the existence of reasons of public interest to submit the patents of medicines with the active principle to compulsory license dolutegravir“.
Faced with this, the Association of Research Pharmaceutical Laboratories (Afidro) states that intellectual property should prevail and should not declare public interest reasons.
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And it is that from the Government what they want is to reduce the cost of medicines that contain this active ingredient and that users who need AIDS drugs can have it and the financial costs of the health system are not increased.
Thus, the resolution describes that “The price regulated by the National Commission on Prices of Medicines and Medical Devices for the commercial presentation in a bottle for 30 50 mg Dolutegravir tablets is $401,574 COP, while, according to the “Long-Term Agreement Price List ( LTA1)” of the Strategic Fund of the Pan American Health Organization -PAHO- for the year 2022, the same presentation of the generic version of this medicine, has a cost of $11,147 COP, from which it is inferred that this last value would allow providing the medicine to approximately 36 people, compared to 1 person with respect to the commercial value“.
Faced with this decision, the Association of Research and Development Pharmaceutical Laboratories (Afidro), emphasizes that “intellectual property is the basis for the development of new treatments and cures. It is through it that the generation of knowledge and innovation in health is promoted and rewarded.”
Furthermore, they insist that “To date, in no situation has respect for intellectual property been an obstacle to a comprehensive response to HIV. In Colombia, to date, there have been no cases in which patients have stopped receiving a specific treatment as a result of the exclusivity of a patent. Therefore, it is important to highlight that compulsory licenses are a tool for exceptional and temporary use.“.
Thus, they invite the Ministry of Health to “declare the non-existence of reasons of public interest to submit medicines with the active principle Dolutegravir to compulsory licence”.
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