Intellectual property organizations and pharmaceutical patents in Africa

This article builds on a previous study which found low numbers of patent applications for HIV antiretroviral drugs in African countries. A high level of variation was noted across individual countries, and consequently, the present study has sought to account for sources of the variation through statistical analyses. First, a correlation between the number of patents and HIV infection rate was observed (r=0.448, p<0.001). T-tests identified significantly higher numbers of patents in national members of two intellectual property organizations (IPOs)-African Regional Intellectual Property Orginisation (ARIPO) and the Organisation Africaine de la Propriété Intellectualle (OAPI)-than in countries who did not belong to an intellectual property organization. The relationship between IPO membership and number of patents was also statistically significant in a multivariate Poisson regression. These findings demonstrate that higher numbers of patents are found in countries where they are more easily filed. This has important policy implications given the worldwide trend toward increased recognition of pharmaceutical patents.