The State of São Paulo Forum on NGO/ AIDS (Foaesp), made public, last September 19, a letter in rejection of the grant of sofosbuvir patent to the US Pharmaceutical Company, Gilead Sciences.
Check below, the content of the letter:

The State of São Paulo Forum on NGO/AIDS (FOAESP), group formed in 1997, representing more than a hundred Civil Society Organizations on the fight for the human rights of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) and co-infections, as also for the appreciation of the Brazilian Unified Heath System, expresses, in public, its disagreement and dissatisfaction on the grant of sofosbuvir patent to the US Company, Gilead Sciences.

As well as the Working Group on Intellectual Property (GTPI), FOAESP considers the National Institute for Industrial Property (INPI) decision unwise and outrageous, since that grant had already been embargoed, and the concession also contradicts to various technical arguments, proving the product does not fill minimal criteria required by the Law of Patent, as sufficiency of disclosure and inventiveness, that turns the plead unworthy.

Besides inadequate, the INPI decision obstructs the production of the generic version, that would save around a billion of reals from the public funds, moreover, it hampers the universal access to Hepatitis C treatment, as ensured by the Clinical Protocol and Therapeutic Guidelines for Hepatitis C and Co-infections, once it was enacted the Constitutional Amendment 95/2016, a spending cap to freeze health spending for 20 years.

Considering the facts above and motivated to guarantee the access to treatment, FOAESP will push on the Republic Presidency to enact the compulsory licensing of sofosbuvir, as it is ensured by the Law of Patents in Brazil and the World Trade Organization Trips Agreement in order to fulfill the 1988 Constitution that presumes universal access to health.

Compulsory licensing for sofosbuvir right now!
Rodrigo Pinheiro
President