(More on Colombia here: /colombia)
Andrea Carolina Reyes Rojas informs us that a committee appointed to consider a request for a compulsory license on the leukemia drug Imatinib has decided that there are public interest reasons to do so.
A copy of the decision is available here. Andrew Goldman shares some thoughts and context here.
Some press reports about the decision:
- Claudia P. Vaca G., ¿Por qué es importante la decisión que está a punto de tomar el Minsalud sobre el imatinib?, El EspectadorMarch 3, 2016,
- Sergio Silva Numa, La histórica pelea que están a punto de ganar los pacientes con leucemia, El Espectador, March 3, 2016,
This was my comment on the decision:
We are particularly pleased to see the weight given to the impact of the high price on the budget resources, as relevant to the public interest. You don’t have “access to medicine for all” unless the budget has enough money to buy all the medicines that everyone needs. And, when resources are limited, prices can’t be unlimited. Providing universal access, is indeed in the public interest.
Andrew Goldman and I wrote about the public interest definition earlier, here:
- Colombia Asked To Declare Excessive Price For Cancer Drug Contrary To Public Interest, Grounds For Compulsory License. Inside Views, IP-Watch.Org. December 3, 2015.