PATENTLY ABSURD Latha Jishnu / New Delhi July 23, 2008, 0:26 IST Some extraordinary initiatives have been launched in recent times to ensure that the poorest of the world have access to medicines to fight pandemics and life-threatening diseases. One such is UNITAID, an international drug purchase facility that brings together 27 countries to help fight three killer diseases: HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. The project was started by France, Brazil, Chile, Norway and the UK and its members are mostly African countries which are the worst victims of these afflictions. Set up on September 19, 2006, to ensure a stable source of funding, the organisation has taken on board the Gates Foundation and South Korea, and is hoping to extend its reach. India is not part of this initiative although the UNITAID spokeswoman tells me that it is "one of the target countries for membership". UNITAID has been innovative from the start. To ensure sustainable and predictable resources, it hit upon the idea of levying a solidarity tax on airline tickets. Not all the member-countries have imposed the levy but almost of them are in the process of doing so, each deciding on what's the most feasible rate, given their level of development and the elasticity of demand. Thus, African countries, for the most part, are imposing the tax only on international flights, or on business/first class tickets. Early this month, UNITAID took a decision that can only be described as momentous. Addressing the intellectual property aspect of access to medicines, the executive board decided in principle to set up a patent pool