TOPIC: Médecines du Monde Campaign & Petition

The numbers were increasing quite slow in the last days. There are 215000 signatures already, yet the target increased from 250000 to 275000.

I've noticed that in the last 2 months only ~12000 additional people signed this. Quite slow and reaching the target of 275000 signatures seems mission impossible.

I was wondering whether Fixhepc might tweet this petition? It would be a simple gesture of brotherhood that might help.

Cheers,
RHF

La pétition est tweeted

twitter.com/@fixhepc

I missed this the first time around so just signed the petition. There might be others on this site who will sign now that it has been bumped again.

According to this article, the patent challenge on sofosbuvir that was filed by Médecins du Monde back in Feb 2015 will be considered by the European Patent Office next week (4,5 October 2016):

www.medecinsdumonde.org/actualites/press...on-le-5-octobre-2016

Here's hoping...

Hi Vororo,

Thank you, sounds challenging, I look forward for the outcomes.

Do I understand correctly that there will be a public hearing? Meaning anyone is allowed to attend the session?
Cheers,
RHF

Hi RHF,

Yes, the EPO web site says it is a public hearing in Munich. Anyone can attend on a "first-come, first-served basis":

www.epo.org/applying/online-services/proceedings.html

More details here:

register.epo.org/application?number=EP08732818&tab=main

Some background:

www.firstwordpharma.com/node/1263122#axzz3RPviNrRF
www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2015/02/1...-c_4573300_3244.html (French)

Cheers,

Hi Vororo,

I just visited the EPO website and saw the calendar about the hearing taking place in Munich.
Even more, I could see also the application number and the what I think it is "the basis of the dispute" : register.epo.org/application?number=EP08732818&tab=main , where the title of the application "..... NUCLEOSIDE PHOSPHORAMIDATE PRODRUGS".

So.... I think it is going to be a long "chemical" hearing. For a simple citizen like me, completely outside the field of chemistry, if they are going to talk about formulas and substances ..... it will be kind of boring.
In any case, I really would like to understand the arguments of Gilead when it says that Sofosbuvir is innovative and deserves a patent and the arguments of the others which claim that Sofosbuvir is not so innovative as it is based on previous known knowledge. I've read the information published by I-MAK and the Indian patent rejection from 2015 about sofosbuvir, however I fear that for a non-chemist person, the arguments why Sofosbuvir is not so much an innovative drug are not very clear. And because of this low understanding about the degree of innovation in Sofosbuvir, people might easier believe whatever Gilead will claim.

By making a parallelism with the auto industry, I would imagine that Sofosbuvir's case looks like the case when a car manufacturer is patenting the newest automatic 2-clutches gearbox of a car, but instead of patenting that specific type of gearbox, it is patenting ALL types of automatic 2-clutches gearboxes, although other companies have already designed or are in the process of designing similar gearboxes. Therefore all other car producers are forced to use the gearbox from Gilead only. When speaking about drugs, yes, we do talk about chemical formula which for many of us is perhaps rocket science, however things cannot be much far away from the example just illustrated. In the end, there are chemist and specialists in other companies as well, not only by Gilead.

People need to really understand with a simple language this issue with the patent of Sofosbuvir and the degree of innovation, if any, it contains,

Hopefully more information will be available not before the hearing, rather after the hearing.

BR
RHF

I think my previous post was also confusing.... sorry about that.

The main idea I intended to say was that people need to understand in simple words why Gilead is or is not entitled to hold the patent for Sofosbuvir.
(The patent opposition with scientific arguments may be found here: www.medecinsdumonde.org/sites/default/fi...pposition-MdM-en.pdf )
I look forward for the outcomes of the hearings from next week,

RHF

Hi RHF,

Thank you for posting the link to the MdM patent opposition. Very interesting!

I know a bit about chemical formulae, but I am not a legal expert. Still, it looks like a strong challenge to me.

In simple words,

Gilead is not entitled to have a patent for sofosbuvir because all of the chemical knowledge and technology was previously published in the open academic literature. There is no inventive step.

Good cause! Surprised the petition has slowed down French are always so proactive over any public injustice! Guess the entire world needs a whole lot more educating when it comes to HepC!!!!!!

Just signed petition and will ask others I know to do likewise.

leprixdelavie.medecinsdumonde.org/img-re...4a0f60f089a9_640.jpg

Every day that passes I like Twitter more and more.
Here are some nice pictures from Germany with posters on the streets depicting the situation of expensive drugs (courtesy Ärzte der Welt on Twitter):

Invalid consumer key/secret in configuration

I could not post here the pictures from Twitter, however a screenshot from the Facebook page looks like below:



The text of the invitation says :
"Come next Tuesday, 4th of October from 8.15 directly to our action at Isartor in Munich, spend 15 minutes or more and show publicly that things with the inflated drug prices can no longer continue !!"

Tomorrow will be a hot day in Munchen.

P.s. I see that the Twitter link shows an error ....
Cheers,
RHF

Just a reminder, the French Minister for Health, Marisol Touraine, said that "the time has come to renegotiate the price", and promised that everyone in France with HCV would get treatment, starting in September 2016:

www.aidsmap.com/France-to-provide-univer...atment/page/3060907/

Well, it is now October 3 and there is still no news of the promised announcement. Lets just hope its simply a case of "all bets are off" until the EPO decision?

Let's also not forget that the WTO rules allow governments to issue a Compulsory Licence if necessary

www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/trips_e/public_health_faq_e.htm

Madame Tourisol, if the EPO will not do it, the world will be looking to France to end Gilead's evil business strategy and make HEP-C treatments available to all.

I've been trying to read with Google translate couple of German newspapers this morning.
I enjoyed reading this one: www.schwaebische.de/region/bayern_artike...-_arid,10538268.html
What a great "publicity" for Gile...... ...
The English translation of the article is this one:
The European Patent Office (EPO) in Munich deals today about the objection to a patent on an effective but expensive hepatitis C drug. The organization Doctors of the World had challenged the patent of a US company for the drug sofosbuvir. The pharmaceutical company failed to formulate an exact formula nor a specific method of production in its documents, argues the organization. The active ingredient in turn had been earlier discovered by other researchers. The high price of the drug is based therefore on an invalid patent.

The treatment costs are depending on the country at up to EUR 60 000, according to Doctors of the World. In Germany alone, the health insurance companies are faced with cost of billions. The general aim is to enable the production of inexpensive generics. To the opposition of the organization Doctors of the World have now associated nine generic manufacturers.

I am not sure how Google works in other countries, but in Romania if I run a search for "EPA sofosbuvir" for the last week in order to find out more about the hearing from today in Munchen about the opposition to the patent for sofosbuvir, I get a lot of results with articles from German magazines / newspapers, but almost none from newspapers from around the world.
Examples:
WELT - www.welt.de/regionales/bayern/article158.../EPA-verhandelt.html
BILD - www.bild.de/regional/aktuelles/bayern/pa...t-48117624.bild.html
FOCUS - www.focus.de/regional/muenchen/medizin-p...delt_id_6023606.html
FRANKENPOST - www.frankenpost.de/regional/bayern/bayer...delt;art2832,5122133
MITTELBAYERISCHE - www.mittelbayerische.de/bayern-nachricht...1705-art1436948.html
SCHWAEBISCHE - www.schwaebische.de/region/bayern_artike...-_arid,10538268.html

Also on Twitter, only the German side of Medicines du Monde is publishing the news....

One might say that the rest of the world is not aware about the hearing for the sofosbuvir patent opposition taking place these days.

Cheers,
RHF