A local newspaper carried an article from a Canadian newspaper, which reported a dispute between the German company, Bayer, and Canada regarding an anti-anthrax treatment. Bayer is a well-known firm and is famous for having been the first to market aspirin. However, Bayer came under pressure from banks, shareholders, creditors and press after a number of deaths in the US and Europe were linked to its highly profitable cholesterol drugs BayCol and LipoBay.
Bayer needed to improve its performance in drug manufacturing and research. In other words, if new medicines or drugs could not be developed, Bayer might sell — its drug and medicine division for more than $6 billion and concentrate on chemicals.
That was a bombshell for Bayer’s management; shares plummeted and it found itself unable to compete with much larger, merged pharmaceutical companies. But bad times for some can be good times for others. The anthrax problem arrived and Bayer became the leading anti-anthrax medicine provider with its antibiotic Cipro. The fact that Bayer owns important and renowned trademarks helps it re-establish itself as an outstanding drug inventor, maker and manufacturer.
However, Canada is trying to exploit the fear of supply problems to break the patent on Cipro. Bayer now is ready to submit its plans for manufacturing anti-anthrax medicine and has stated that the price for the new drug will be competitive.
Bayer’s proposal denies the claims that it will not be able to produce anti-anthrax in commercial quantity and assures that its new drug will take into account humanitarian factors in terms of availability and prices, not only profits and returns.
A few months ago, Brazil and South Africa refused to pay the full price for anti-HIV drugs and insisted that such items be sold at reasonable prices or they would find other supply. Brazil asked for 40 percent discount and if its request is denied, it further recommended that the monopoly of patents must be ignored and others be allowed to manufacture the required quantities.
It is true that patents, trademarks and inventions are protected by international agreements including agreements formulated by the World Trade Organization. The Canadian Ministry of Health’s decision to cancel or to abolish the patent right is totally wrong.
Bayer agreed and pledged to provide the drug at the cost 40 percent below the prevailing price and the US government stated clearly that it is not legal for any other firm to manufacture Bayer’s product. I am talking here about patents and rights related to inventions.
But we in the Arab world have nothing to worry about because we don’t have patents; we are only consumers of other people’s products. In spite of Arab governments sending many citizens abroad for graduate degrees, our research centers and universities are still of little use. We must understand that education, research and development is more important than being consumers and as our markets are not ready yet for industrial investments, the brains must step in and take the lead.
