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TWN
Info Service on Intellectual Property Issues (Nov17/08) Announcing
a New Research Paper from the South Centre South Centre Research Paper No. 82 November 2017 29 pages English ISSN
1819-6926 Innovative biological drugs, which have been introduced on the market in the past 20 to 30 years, make up, in terms of numbers, no more than 2 per cent of the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines but, in terms of cost, account for 15 per cent to 20 per cent of national drug expenditure. The high price of biological drugs stems mainly from two new factors: first, a change in the pharmaceutical industry’s approach to price-setting and, secondly, the introduction of additional barriers to the entry of generics into the market. In any debate on the impossibility of producing “identical” drugs, it should be made clear that what is at stake is not identical products but therapeutic equivalents. What matters to the patient, after all, is whether or not the drug can prevent, cure or mitigate the effects of the illness. To
access the research paper directly, go to this webpage: To access the South Centre website, where you can also find other research papers, publications and news items, go to this webpage: http://www.southcentre.int
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