While the West worries about the cost of too much new intellectual property (IP) in healthcare, the system that controls it is denying lifesaving technologies to people in both developed and developing countries, according to a report released last September by an international coalition of experts. The reasons:

1. Lack of trust between industry, researchers, and potential recipient communities,
2. An increasingly dysfunctional industry that relies on outdated conceptions of IP,
3. Fixation on patents and privately-controlled research, and
4. A pharmaceutical industry with an increasingly bare medicine cabinet.

The report recommends the usual solutions—work together, develop partnerships, standardize the international IP system, transparency, etc.

In any event, the IP system seems to be offering less and less protection to industry. Bloomberg News reported last year that seizures of bogus prescription medicines jumped 24 percent to 1,513 incidents in 2007, and illicit versions of 403 different prescription drugs were confiscated in 99 countries. This $3 billion-worth of counterfeit drugs included not only generic copies that violate patent laws but also products lacking active chemical ingredients or containing improper dosages.

In the decade since Internet sites began selling illegal copies of Viagra, counterfeiters have diversified, marketing pills to treat heart disease, arthritis, asthma, AIDS, and cancer.

It will only get worse, unless we find ways for the consumer to validate the authenticity of drugs.