Sir, - Kevin Myers's passionate, unbalanced iconoclasm delights and enrages in equal measure (An Irishman's Diary, March 7th).
Patents are artificial monopolies created to reward innovation. Like any monopoly, they must be handled with care. Patent law enshrines the principle of a fair balance between rightful reward to the innovator and the broader public interest. Oxfam entirely supports this principle.
However, the big drug companies, in their legitimate pursuit of maximum profit, have used their enormous power and influence to tilt the playing field in their own favour. The losers are those with no power and influence. The extremely poor people who live in sub-Saharan Africa cannot wine and dine GPs in luxury castles - nor, indeed, spend $236 million lobbying the US government over three years (plus further donations to Democratic and Republican party coffers). The pharmaceutical industry can do this, for it spends twice as much on marketing and general expenses as it does on research. And while all this influence-buying isn't illegal, it certainly makes a difference, as we in this country know all too well.
The main goal of the big drug companies seems to be to put their generic competitors out of business. New WTO rules have already more than doubled the effective length of their patent monopolies, and extended them to all countries. This comes only 20 years after several major European countries (including Switzerland and Italy) finally themselves recognised the legality of international patents. Now the rich companies and countries are denying to Brazil, India, Thailand, and others the chance to develop their own pharmaceutical industries.
So, while the African market only accounts for 1 per cent of industry profits, it is a strategic battlefield for the drug companies. But, in trying to exclude generic equivalents from these poor country markets, the drug companies are forcing these unfortunates to pay 10 times and more for the same formulation - which, of course, they are unable to do. - Yours, etc.,
Dr Brian Scott, Executive Director, Oxfam Ireland, Burgh Quay, Dublin 2.
