The impact of patent and data protection policy on access to affordable medicines: Submission to the United Nations Secretary-General's High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines

Before starting, a few comments on data availability are necessary. The global pharmaceutical industry particularly large originator companies has systematically refused to share data on costs and profits. They do however fund some research centres, particularly in the USA, and researchers at these institutes have produced various estimates showing very high costs for clinical trials. These estimates have major methodological flaws and are highly disputed (Light and Warburton, 2011b, 2011a). The panel will need to check conflict of interest issues for much of the research submitted to it.