IPTango: Public-Private Partnerships

Monday, 19 October 2009

Brazilian Ministry of Health Calls for Partnerships Between Public Laboratories and Private Companies

José Carlos Vaz e Dias October 19, 2009 1 comment:

The Ministry of Health has called upon private companies to set partnerships and strategic alliances with public laboratories to foster the production of innovative drugs in Brazil.

The campaign for new partnerships took place last week, as the health authorities highlighted the availability of the National Bank of Economic and Social Development (BNDES) to fund, at a very low interest rates, new ventures for certain priorities areas, such as the pharmaceutical sector.

Further to that, it will be announced by the end of the year a series of collaborative agreements between 18 public laboratories and local private companies, being all of them related to research and developments of relevant drugs to the Brazilian population.

In the campaign for partnerships, the Ministry of Health praised once more the strategic alliance recently executed (August 17, 2009) between GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK) and Brazil’s Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ) as it is a continuous step towards the commitment to decrease the Brazilian external dependency on the treatment of some diseases and build up an industrial infrastructure for the sector.

With this agreement, it is expected that GSK will invest the amount of EUR 35 million, in the installation of a research and development centre for the development of a vaccine for malaria, yellow fever and dengue fever. Moreover, FIOCRUZ shall have full access to the underlying technology of GSK’s 10-valet conjugate vaccine for paediatric pneumococcal disease (known as Synflorix), which will allow FIOCRUZ’ Unit, so-called BioManguinhos, to produce 13 million doses of vaccines per year. In the meantime, GSK will supply Synflorix to the Government and this vaccine will become part of the Brazilian National Immunization Program (PNI), in 2010.

It appears that GSK and FIOCRUZ relationship in the development of vaccines turned out to be, once again, fruitful for both parties, a partnership initiated back in 1985, with the supply of polio vaccines to the Brazilian government.

Tuesday, 7 April 2009

Brazilian PPPs in the Pharma Industry

Jeremy April 07, 2009 No comments:

The Brazilian Health Minister announced last week that it has entered into nine Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) with national laboratories and pharmaceutical companies. Such ventures take place by allowing selected public laboratories to execute Research and Development Agreements with local private companies with proven activities in the drug development. Further, the partnership comprises the technology transfer and the development of 24 drugs no longer protected by patents.

The government’s intention is to distribute freely such drugs to the Brazilian population following the existing public National Health System (SUS). Among the illnesses targeted by the Brazilian Government with the local manufacture of medicines are HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, asthma and hemophilia. Cholesterol lowering drugs are also to be distributed

According to the Health Minister, the PPPs aim to (i) rebuild the national pharmaceutical industry, destroyed in the nineties by the market liberalization, (ii) lower the rate of imported medicines, today representing approximately 80% of national consumption and (iii) cut public expenses of approximately US$ 80 million per year with a relevant impact to the SUS. One of the medicines highlighted by the Health Minister during the press release as an example of the costs associated with the importation of medicines was FACTOR VII, manufactured by the Danish company NovoNordisk for the treatment of hemophilia, which had cost to the public treasury last year almost US$ 20 million.

For now, the laboratories and pharmaceutical companies have a 30 day period to submit the respective proposal to the Health Ministry in order to be considered for this public-private partnership.

[This post was written by José Carlos Vaz e Dias, a member of the IP Tango team]

Some IPTango moves

* Listed as one of the "Best blogs on Intellectual and Industrial Property Law". The University of Alicante Intellectual Property & Information Technology Project (UAIPIT).

* One of the only two Latin American blog listed in the "Top 100 Intellectual Property Blogs". Feedspot, as of May 2021.

* Listed as one of the "Top 15 Blogs For An Intellectual Property (IP) Enthusiasts". Buzzfeed.com, January 2017.

* Listed as one of the "World's Best IP Blogs". BananaIP.com, December 2015.

* IPTango founder Professor Jeremy Phillips was listed as one of the Managing Intellectual Property magazine's "Fifty Most Influential People" of 2005, 2011, 2013, and 2014.

* Listed as one of the "Influential intellectual property blawgs". A Dictionary of Intellectual Property Law, Peter Groves, 2011.

* Listed as one of the "Communities of Blawgers". Los blogs jurídicos y la web 2.0. para la difusión y la enseñanza del derecho, Gonzalo Ramírez Cleves, 2010.