TUBERCULOSIS: Patented Drug Expansion

JOHANNESBURG, 12 May 2010 (PLUSNEWS) - A South African government agency has become the first to join the world's leading patent pool for neglected diseases, a move that could bolster home-grown innovations in the fight against diseases including tuberculosis (TB). The Technology Innovation Agency (TIA), a government body, recently announced that it had joined a patent pool established by pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to spur research into 16 neglected tropical diseases. The TIA's move means local researchers will have access to more than 2,300 existing patents as well as related knowledge on the diseases, including TB and malaria. The patent pool - which aligns to US Food and Drug Administration definitions of neglected diseases and does not include antiretrovirals (ARVs), used to treat HIV - is a voluntary arrangement in which companies in the same sector, like pharmaceuticals, agree to share patented intellectual property and usually pay a royalty for access to drug formulations and research. "If other companies in South Africa can come up with innovative ways in which they can use the information in the patent pool, then TIA will help them put plans together and implement [them]," said Dr Carl Montague, TIA's health portfolio manager. iThemba Pharmaceuticals, a private South African drug company partly funded by TIA, signed on to the pool earlier this year to accelerate its own TB and malaria research, said company spokesperson Dr Chris Eldin. Montague noted that there was a wealth of opportunity available to drug researchers, but "We have to ensure that the pool can be meaningfully exploited, and that we get access to the researchers who have the knowledge [of] the patents [that have been] generated," he told IRIN/PlusNews. "Having access to hundreds of patents is a daunting prospect and we need help in evaluating patents and selecting the best targets for further work, so that we don't waste our meagre resources." The World Health Organization (WHO) lists TB as the leading killer of people living with HIV, and has estimated that South Africa has an HIV prevalence rate of about 18 percent and one of the world's highest TB burdens.