Patents on Medicine - Essay Example

Author’s name Professor’s name Course Date Patents on medicine A patent is a legally binding document used as a claim over an invention. It gives the holder of the patent exclusive rights over an invention or a discovery. The owner of the patent is eligible to benefit exclusively from the profits for a given set number of years. The state or the inventor is the one to grant the public permission to use the patent license or the royalty fees. Patents are given within a specificities period in exchange for the information to the public. The procedures that are set in place for the acquisition and the grant of the patent rights vary widely. It varies between countries and according to the laws set aside by the international governing agreements. For the patent to be granted to an individual, the invention must be novel, not obvious and must be of importance in the industrial application. Novelty means that it should be a new idea that is not known by anyone else before. The use of the patent must explain what the invention is all about and give the reasons why the technology is necessary. The patent system designed over 500 years ago has been of immense importance. Patents reward industrial inventors and protect inventions from theft. It stimulates innovations and new ideas. Frequently, patents are manipulated to become instruments for monopolist amongst investors and not incentives to creativity. Medical patents hold for 20years taking into account the clinical trial, and the testing periods, which make them valid for about eight years from the time the drug enters the market, and it is available for consumption by the public. Since 1980, the system extends to patent genetically improved forms of life and the inventions such as the formation of a genetically modified organism. These systems are underway in this line of development due to the rapid growth of the genetic engineering technology and the commercial inclination of companies towards the use of genetically modified organisms. Since one of the requirements of the intellectual property rights is the novelty of the process or the chemicals individuals, and companies are working on developing novel processes in order to claim ownership. Products that have been patented and they are genetically modified have raised ethical and safety concerns on the individuals that are using the products. World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2003 reached an agreement on the use of compulsory licenses in developing countries without the capacity to manufacture life-sustaining medicines. TRIPS agreement is considered by the developed countries as the essential agreement to encourage innovations and for assuring international compensation for their intellectual property. Patents on medicine Patent on medicine refers to the patents given for the use of the medical compounds of questionable effectiveness, designed differently with different labels and trade names. Although most products have trademarks, they have no patents so as not to reveal the potentially harmful and questionable ingredients in the products. Traditional medicine is an important part of the human health care. It is the knowledge, practices and believes which through experiences across indigenous cultures used to maintain excellent health and well-being of the society. Traditional medicine exists in several forms used to cure diseases. The use of these medicinal plants in the cure of diseases has apparently existed for an immensely long period. These traditional plants used for medicinal purposes exist in the formulation or their natural extracts, in developing countries. With the natural extracts from the plants by these communities has lead to the development of a large number of drugs used as therapeutic agents for several types of diseases? With the increased use of traditional medicine worldwide, safety of drugs and their efficacy as well as the quality of the traditional medicine is a growing concern. Traditional therapies have become a growing concern for the health authorities and the public. Apart from the safety and efficacy issues there is the need, to protect the innovations and the inventions of this knowledge. In the recent years, the use of traditional medicine is getting attention from the international bodies. TRIPS council on traditional medicine has revised the clauses that address the patentability and use of traditional medicine. In the recent years, the global herbal market has grown rapidly. Currently medicinal plants enjoy the potential export to the developed countries. Vast majority of the medically potential plants originate from the developing countries due to the rich biodiversity. TRIPS recognize that traditional knowledge plays a key role, in the in the protection of biodiversity and the sustainable use of biodiversity (Zaveri 51). In the past, the multinational companies have exploited the use of these resources and have converted them into commercial products without the consent of the inhabitants of the region. The profits that they gain from the sale of the resultant final products from the region are enjoyed by individuals alone without compensation of the knowledge received from these places. The Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), agreement members accepted the principle that bio resources existing in a member state are the sole property of the sovereign state. The state has the rights to use the resources as tradable commodities. Most countries in the developing countries have not enacted these laws and legislations to implement these agreements. It is necessary to develop the rules that are governing the use and the exchange of indigenous germplasms used for research and development or for the commercial production of tradable products. Access to plant genetic resources can provide benefits to companies and research institutions worldwide. There are concerns that the knowledge on the traditional medicine is appropriated through adopted and patented by scientists and industries without compensation to the custodians of this knowledge and without their prior, informed consent. These issues fall under the trade issues since such products cross the international boundaries. At present, the existing conventional patent laws are of great use in the protection of the traditional knowledge. Although there is no agreement as to how or when to protect this knowledge there is a need to protect medicinal knowledge and for the fair and equitable sharing of resources. The business of IPRs has led to the increase in the exploration of biodiversity for commercial and biochemical resources in a process known as bioprospecting. In the competitive life science category, the collection of patents has become one of the most valuable defense tools. The use of patent tools in these fields to vend off competition has become a disaster in the society. On the grounds of patenting, they are preventing countries from acquiring and using drugs through playing the game of double standards. They use patents to prevent some countries from accessing medicines while stealing medicinal plants from them. Prolonged protection of intellectual property rights (IPRs) is impeding innovations such as in cases where accompany has patented breast cancer genes is making researchers pay royalties in order to use the genes for investigation purposes. Patents regulate market of the patented products as well as regulating the profits enjoyed by these companies. In some cases, the technology has destroyed the original effectiveness of life forms rather than improving them. Currently the producers, for farmers to owe them the offspring of the products can legally prevent farmers from saving and regrowth of the patented seeds and protection against the exploitation. Patents are giving companies the right to control the world's germ plasm, human genetic profiles and the compounds used for very important processes such as the production of medicines. Political and economic power of patents on life forms has the same aims. They both aim at ensuring that all countries are able to adopt the United States style of intellectual property rights laws. This will fall under the trade relate intellectual property laws which is an agreement by member countries, which will force them to comply with these rules. Amidst this patent, wars the rights of benefits it is clear that the primary custodians of the powers sidelined. The benefits to the custodians are almost nonexistent, and if they exist they are very limited on top of the restrictions imposed on them on the access of their own heritage. The patents ensure market monopolies of drugs and guaranteed profits for the industries that are producing the food or the drugs. It will involve the sale of a handful of people and not benefit the community. The patentee has the right to determine the market price of food or the drug, which can result in the exploitation of the public. The consequences imposed on piracy of the medicinal plants and compounds patented are too stringent and are more immerse in the developing countries. Farmers are forced to buy new seeds each planting season and pay royalties each harvest season. Through genetic engineering, technologies have been developed that allow the planting of the plants once and after which the plants will not grow again. This will ensure the continuous market for the patented seeds as it will force farmers to buy seeds each planting season. The plants used for medicinal purposes can be eroded through this way, and there is no conservation of the indigenous genetic material. This can lead to the scarcity of the indigenous genetic material. A dangerous dependency is currently evolving that will increase food insecurity and undermine sustainable livelihood. Patents can be taken by the affected communities in order to benefit from the commercialization of their products. This is not possible because the knowledge in the community is collective, which is based upon the experience sharing and the free exchange of knowledge of the biodiversity over generations. Intellectual property rights are a limitation of this kind of knowledge flow. The commercialization of knowledge will shut out some groups of the community form accessing the knowledge. Private ownership of knowledge and its use as traded commodity is something that is alien in most societies (Zaveri 64). Many people world have joined groups that advocate against the patenting issues in an effort of challenging the effects of unjust patents. One of these groups has successfully overturned the patent held against the neem tree used by Indians for a very long time as a source of pesticides and medicines. There are many more patents that still hold rights on the use of the neem tree and it remains a challenge for this coalition. The USDA canceled the patents right of the cell lines of the Hagahai people. Most developing countries are under pressure to change their current laws to accommodate the law on patent. Most people are sticking to their current collective knowledge on biodiversity. Intellectual property rights are currently transforming economies as well as the food security globally. They transform health care provision and the human evolution. Several patents exist on different food crops except patenting of the staple food crops, which include maize, potato, wheat and rice. Through biotechnology engineering, there has been the development of transgenic crops on Maize and the other staple food crops. The scientist uses the legal means to claim ownership of the genes used to transform these plants. United States court of appeal in 2000 decided that the plant varieties used for staple food could be patented. Granting of these patents means that the farmers will have to be fully dependent on the industries that are producing these transgenic crops. The examples of plants that have patents include plants that carry BT gene, which is isolated from a bacterium that is naturally occurring in the soil such as maize, sorghum, soybeans, potatoes and rice among others. Patents have also traditionally prohibited the patenting of animals breeds and races. This is because it is regarded as contrary to morality. This has faced many controversies, as they believe that it is not morally right to reduce the animals to the level of industrial machines. Patents will make it impossible for small families to raise livestock. It is disturbing for most of the farmers as they look on the effects of the patents are going to reduce industrialization on animal farming. Some animals patented include the oncomouse used in cancer research and therapy. Meat and eggs with high fat content obtained from transgenic animals have been patented by John Hopkins University including the animals that produce them. Dolly was the first cloned mammal to be cloned. The Roslin institute, which was responsible for the experiment on dolly sheep, obtained a patent for the cloning technology used. The patent covers the use of technology on all animals except the use of technology on human beings. The techniques used in the development of Dolly sheep are the same for human and animals. The existence in similarity on the processes has lead to the development of patents against the procedures that are used in cloning of animals and human beings. Medicine is derived from biochemical compounds found in nature, which mostly originate from the tropics and subtropics regions. Most of the traditional medicines are obtained from the natural environment and knowledge on the medicines originates from native communities. Most of the chemicals cure that are derived from the rain forest and knowledge of the healers. The western culture taking the plants for use in the manufacture of medicine is both physical and intellectual theft. The researchers take the indigenous knowledge and patent is and yet they are not the first ones to invent the compounds. This brings constraints in the systems of collective management of biodiversity and protection as well as the safeguarding of the biological diversity. Example of medicinal trees that have been patented against the knowledge of the community include the thorny tree with healing properties, which is obtained from Mexico, and it is still used to date for healing burns around the region. Dr. Leon Roque requested a patent on the ashes obtained from the tree barks. In addition, he was granted the patent in 1989 on the biochemical compounds present in the plant. Another patent was given to patent the rights on the active ingredients of the tree plant. The implication of this patent is that Dr Leon patented the medicine used by the community for a long period. It means that he patented traditional knowledge. This has led to the depletion of the natural tree, and it has led to the community not only suffering from the depletion of their knowledge but also from exploitation. The locals will have to compete with the people who are commercializing the product. The other plants patented include Hoodia and turmeric plants of which the communities that are growing them suffer the same losses. Conclusion Intellectual property rights in the access of medicinal plants and other biochemical compounds are very controversial. Biochemical compounds that are necessary for development of medicine should be carefully controlled from individuals and companies. This ensures that most of the people who are poor can be in a position to access the medical facilities that are located in their environments. Patenting traditional plant sources increases the cost of accessing biochemical compounds by researchers. These researchers have the aim of developing drugs for the cure of emerging diseases such as Aids. The legal protection of the patents gives the patentees monopoly over products and processes. The licenses that are compulsory in the agreements might be hard for the local communities to obtain. Developing countries should undertake an independent human rights impact assessment of the effects of the trade related intellectual property rules on the access of medicine and enjoyment of the right to health. The results obtained from the assessment are used to evaluate the impacts of the property legislation in the country. Each state country should ensure that there is access of the information on the public to ensure that the indigenous medicinal plant varieties are protected by the state. This is to prevent patents by individuals. Each state should seek the help of the human rights technical assistance to ensure that all the rights of human beings are put at stake before getting involved on the trade of community knowledge. The regulatory bodies should not give patents for medicinal compounds used by the community. Patents are supposed to protect and not exploit. Works cited Zaveri, Narendra B. Patents for medicine: balanced patent law, the need of the hour : issues/options before the nation and the parliament for patent law changes for 'TRIPs’. London: Sage, 1998. . Read More