The Op-Ed: Johnson & Johnson Patent Move is "Inadequate"

Yesterday, Johnson & Johnson announced that it would not enforce patent rights for its Prezista HIV drug, which will be licensed to generic drugmakers for distribution in 64 poor countries. The health care giant also indicated it would look to do the same with two other HIV medicines (back story). The move comes a year after J&J (JNJ) was harshly criticized for declining to join Medicines Patent Pool, which is an initiative designed to streamline patent licensing for producing generics of patented HIV meds and offering lower prices in poor countries. The announcment was an effort to blunt such criticism and comes just two days after the Access to Medicines Index shows J&J has done a better job of providing its drugs to people in poor countries (read here). Despite the effort, some say J&J did not go far enough. Among them Brook Baker, a professor in the Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy at the Northeastern University School of Law, and a member of Health Gap, Global Access Project, and in an op-ed, he explains why he believes the move is inadequate.