Who Develops Innovations in Medicine for the Poor? Trends in Patent Applications Related to Medicines for Hiv/Aids, Tuberculosis, Malaria, and Neglected Diseases

Abstract

This paper analyzes patent data of medicines and vaccines for diseases spreading in low-income countries. The data were retrieved from a database of the Japan Patent Office. Who invents medicines for the poor of the world? This is the main question that the paper addresses. Results indicate that not only public institutions but also private firms have played an important role in developing innovations for fighting both global diseases such as HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, and so-called neglected diseases including malaria, which seem to spread almost exclusively in low-income countries. Moreover, the basic mechanism of innovation is similar between the development of medicines for HIV/AIDS and those for neglected diseases. Finally, among firms, infectious disease fighting innovations are quite diverse. R&D stock and economies of scope are used to explain frequent patent applications by a high-performing pharmaceutical firm.

Can Patent Duration Hinder Medical Innovation for Neglected Diseases?

“…The small per-centage of patents for diseases striking in poor countries is a clear evidence that profitability is the key engine to medical innovation, since the death toll and morbidity level of TB and neglected diseases are altogether much higher than those of HIV/AIDS. Ito and Yamagata [9] also finds that private companies in Japan are the biggest suppliers of patents both for HIV and TB, but those private companies invest proportionally much more for HIV. Among the 3507 applications for HIV/AIDS, roughly 81% of them came from private companies and 14% from universities.…”

“…In 1998, the United States Patent and Trademark Office [18] reports that the number of such existing patents exceeded 1500 in the US. Ito and Yamagata [9] also analyzes the patents application pattern for neglected diseases in Japan, which includes HIV/AIDS, for the period 1980-1998. They report 5121 applications for this period, among which roughly twothirds of them were directly devoted to AIDS only, roughly 7% of them were targeted against TB and the remainder against various neglected diseases.…”

“…Ito and Yamagata [9] strongly suggests that the patent system fosters private R&D investments for treatments for the poor.…”