Kyiv-Mohyla Workshop on Intellectual Property and Access to Medicines

Kyiv-Mohyla Statement on Access to Pegylated Interferon for the Treatment of Hepatitis C. English | Russian

Press Release announcing Statement.

Course Syllabus and Assigned Readings.

Kyiv-Mohyla Academy
September 14-18, 2009

PIJIP, the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, and the Open Society Institute held an intellectual property and access to medicines training for public health advocates in Kiev, Ukraine. The training showed advocates from Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States how intellectual property flexibilities permitted by international law can be used to promote access to affordable generic medicines. It included presentations from legal academics and activists from both the US and the Ukraine – Sean Flynn (American University), Brook Baker (Northeastern Univeristy), Yulia Gordonna (Mohyla University), Peter Maybarduk (Essential Action), Anastasia Mindrul (Mohyla University), Zoriana Skaletska (Mohyla University), and Raminta Stuikyte (Harm Reduction Network).

On September 18, participants released a statement calling on governments and international organizations to take steps to increase access to generic pegylated interferon for the treatment of Hepatitis C. The statement urges all parties to recognize that high prices have led to a treatment crisis, and to “outline intellectual property, registration and other policy options that can be used to lower prices and increase access to the best available treatments.” Hepatitis C effects between 150 and 200 million people worldwide, and countries in the Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States have been especially hard hit.

Support for the Initiative was provided by FOSI, the Open Society Institute, the United Nations Development Fund, the University of Pretoria and the American Unversity Washington College of Law.

PIJIP Access to Medicines Legal Education Initiative Home

Kyiv-Mohyla Statement on Access to Pegylated Interferon for the Treatment of Hepatitis C

September 18, 2009
Kiev, Ukraine

Having engaged in a 5-day training on Access to Medicines, Trade and Intellectual Property in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, sponsored at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Kiev, Ukraine, September 11-18, 2009, facilitated by American University Washington College of Law Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property, Mohyla Academy and the Open Society Institute,

Alarmed at the high number of people infected with Hepatitis C (HCV), which is estimated to be between 150-200 million people in the world,

Recognizing that there is a treatment crisis in the region for Hepatitis C caused, in part, by the inability of treatment organizations to access affordable pegylated interferon (commonly costing over $10,000 for a half year course), which poses public health and national security threats to countries of the region,

Recognizing the importance of achieving both new innovation for and access to the best possible HCV treatments,

Understanding that regional governments are entering into agreements with the WTO, EU and other trading partners that tend to increase intellectual property protections on medicines far in excess of those required by the World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS),

We call on governments of the region, the World Health Organization, bilateral and multilateral aid organizations, donors and others to:

• Acknowledge that prohibitive prices of the best available combination treatment option (with pegylated interferon) is contributing to a treatment crisis for HCV in the EECA region and that urgent measures are needed to lower prices and increase the accessibility of current and future treatment options,

• Investigate potential suppliers of generic pegylated interferon or alternatives and outline intellectual property, registration and other policy options that can be used to lower prices and increase access to the best available treatments,

• Provide increased technical assistance to governments, experts, civil society, patient groups and treatment activists in the region on the dangers of adopting heightened intellectual property and registration barriers to accessing generic medicines.