Britain’s biggest pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has recently announced that it will not file patents in poorer and developing countries in a bid to make it easier for people in these countries to access life-saving medicine.

These countries will be given the green light to manufacture and supply cheaper versions of GSK’s medicines. Additionally, for Lower Middle Income Countries they will file for patents whilst at the same time offering licenses to allow these countries to manufacture cheaper versions of their medicines for 10 years.

However, the firm will still continue to seek full patent protection in higher income countries.

Those who cannot afford drugs in countries where poverty is still a major issue, such as China and Brazil, will not benefit from this move either, if their country does not qualify as ‘developing’ or ‘lower income’.

The company has also said it will commit all its future cancer drugs and treatments to the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP), which for the past few years has been extremely successful in facilitating the access to various drugs through voluntary licensing arrangements. Hopefully this will set a positive example for other pharmaceutical companies to follow.

A forward step

More than a third of the world’s population doesn’t have access to crucial drugs, with more than half of these people living in the poorest regions of Africa and Asia.

Most drug companies hold patents on their medicines, meaning they can charge unreasonably high prices for their medicines – see everyone’s favourite villian – making life-saving treatments for diseases such as HIV or cancer unaffordable for those that need them.

The consequences are particularly devastating for people living in developing countries, who generally have to pay for drugs out of their own pockets. Humanitarians are constantly challenging corporations over intellectual property rights in a struggle for global health equity.