Pooling Patents for Disease

The Guardian reports that Ivan Lewis, the British minister for international development, will be working to persuade drug companies to give up their patent rights to help treat neglected diseases and pediatric HIV patients in the developing world. Lewis will be meeting with execs to determine whether they will participate in two patent pools. One was proposed by GlaxoSmithKline to encourage research into treatments for neglected diseases, and the other by the international organization Unitaid that buys HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis medications for the developing world. "Now is the time for industry to step up to the mark," Lewis says.