This was presented by Sophia Apostolia from Médecins Sans Frontières at the Impacts of Civic Technology Conference (TICTeC2016) in Barcelona on 28th April. You can find out more information about the conference here: https://www.mysociety.org/research/tictec-2016/

2. Who we are - MSF
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an
international humanitarian aid organisation
that provides emergency medical assistance
to people in danger in more than 60
countries.

3. Who we are – MSF Access Campaign
MSF rejects the idea that developing countries
deserve third-rate medical care and strives to
provide high-quality care to patients and to
improve the organization's practices.
Through the Access Campaign and, in partnership
with the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative,
this work has helped lower the price of HIV/AIDS
treatment and has stimulated research and
development for medicines to treat malaria and
neglected diseases like sleeping sickness and kala
azar.

4. MSF and patent oppositions?

5. MSF and patent oppositions?
Successful patent oppositions by civil society in
India have enabled us to use more affordable
generic versions of key HIV medicines in our
treatment programs,
Dr Esther C Casas, MSF HIV/TB Specialist for
Zimbabwe.
“

6. MSF and patent oppositions?

7. MSF and patent oppositions?
MSF relies on
affordable medicines
for its medical work in
more than 60
countries; in the case
of HIV treatment, over
80 per cent of
medicines used in
developing countries
are generics.

8. MSF and patent oppositions?
Drug companies
routinely apply for
patents or are granted
monopolies on
medicines even when
these aren’t actually
deserved

9. What is the patent opposition
database?
The patent opposition database is an online resource
where civil society can build on others’ experience and
learn how best to challenge unfair drug patents.

10. Who uses it and how
• The legal expert - someone engaged in
opposition work;
• The community elder- someone deeply
involved in oppositions and medicine access
issues;
• The researcher- someone creating landscape
reviews;
• The patient groups;

11. Who uses it and how
• The legal expert - someone engaged in
opposition work;
needs
• To review other oppositions for a drug in
order to find prior art and arguments.
• To review details of applications and
oppositions to identify the patents to
oppose for a drug in my jurisdiction.
• To review other oppositions done in my
jurisdiction in order to understand how to
structure them.
• To understand the legal framework relating
to patents and oppositions in my jurisdiction.
• To showcase their work and experience.
I have to trawl many sources to find
patent applications and oppositions:
can they be automatically linked to
PODB?
“

12. Who uses it and how
• The community elder- someone deeply involved
in oppositions and medicine access issues;
needs
To see current information about
oppositions to keep up to date on who
is doing what, how and where.
“Like all networks, it needs
stimulation and manual processing“

13. Who uses it and how
• The researcher- someone creating landscape
reviews;
needs
To review all the oppositions for certain
drugs to see who is opposing what,
where and how.
We need more opposition data!
“

14. Who uses it and how
• The patient group;
Just putting two or three separate
pills into one, or using known
industry practices to formulate a
drug, should not be considered
innovative enough to warrant a new
20-year patent. By filing patent
oppositions, we can highlight this
information and the possibility of
invalid patents being granted is
reduced.
“needs
• Guidance through the process of
challenging an unjustified patent.
• To forge new alliances and share vital
specialist knowledge, as a patent
application can often be challenged in
different countries on the same basis

15. Successful examples
• Opposition by Indian groups to
GlaxoSmithKline's patent application in
India on the HIV fixed-dose-combination
zidovudine/lamivudine, on the grounds
that it was not a 'new invention', but
simply the combination of two existing
drugs. This combination is now widely
used in HIV treatment in developing
countries.
• A pre-grant opposition filed by the Cancer
Patient Aid Association was also the spur
for the rejection of Novartis's patent
application on the salt form of imatinib,
on the basis that the medicine was merely
a new form of an old medicine. The move
– which became the subject of an
unsuccesful challenge by Novartis before
the Supreme Court - opened up generic
competition on the drug used in the
treatment chronic myeloid leukaemia and
brought the price down by 92 per cent
from over US$2158 per month to $174
per month.

16. How we responded
• A needs-driven tool for
the community

25. Where do we go from here?
Promote community engagement.

26. Questions?
@msf_access / @sophies_voice
info@patentoppositions.org