AFRO-NETS> Patent fair use (5)

[Christian Labadie <CLabadie@t-online.de>]

Patent fair use (5)
-------------------

It seems that both the fall of the price of patented drugs and the 
escalation of the issue on generic drugs will now observe a tier al-
lowing some time to reflect. May I suggest these questions for an 
open SWOT/debate here on AFRO-NETS?

(1) Under the TRIPS accord the production of generic drugs is allowed 
in case of medical emergencies. If Mr Garnier of Glaxo says "If we 
can furnish governments with these drugs at affordable prices, there 
is not much point in allowing any other company to come in", by the 
same token isn't he just saying that it was the very price of Glaxo 
that was constituting that "medical emergency"? Well, if Glaxo admits 
to have been a medical emergency in terms of the TRIPS and if the 
production and/or the threat of importation of generic drugs has been 
in the recent days the cure that solved the Glaxo "medical emer-
gency", shouldn't the patients be kept on a preventive treatment that 
works: the production of generic drugs?

(2) We learned that the merger of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline 
Beecham cost GBP 121m in fees to bankers, lawyers and other advisers, 
a part being received by consulting firms who were involved in:
* mergers and acquisitions,
* consulting for the round-discussions on GATS, TRIPS, etc.,
* brokering a deal between poor countries and one of its client.

Shouldn't a consulting firm refrain entirely from consulting for an 
African country, if that firm has consulted for a pharmaceutical or a 
large Western block such as the European Union, USA, etc.? Following 
the TRIPS, a consulting firm should have suggested to Botswana (a 
poor country with currency reserves) to ally with other Southern Af-
rican countries, Uganda, Senegal and Rwanda in designing a common ge-
neric production for South/East Africa. If Botswana has reached the 
point of asking its own people not to wait for the traditional 5 days 
to bury their dead because hospital morgues are full, isn't it a 
medical emergency in terms of the TRIPS, thus time to move to generic 
production?

(3) Was it fair to have intimidated South Africa with an EU secret 
letter in 1998 and a law-suit filed by 42 pharmaceuticals? Can we 
speak of an orchestrated Western attempt to intimidate Africa with 
the help of high profile global consultants? Would have 4 years meant 
something for young orphans if during those 4 years their parents 
would have prolonged their lives with AIDS drugs? Should parents also 
receive HIV/AIDS treatments as European parliamentarians are asking 
the European commission? Does the prevention of the mother-to-child 
HIV transmission suffice?

(4) Do you believe that the universities of poor countries can play a 
leading role in future research on AIDS drugs and vaccine? Should 
they receive research grants? Who should manage those grants for Af-
rica: a collaboration of African countries, private company funda-
tions (Microsoft, Glaxo, etc.), Western countries, a UN agency?

(5) The former German chancellor Dr. Kohl said a few years ago that 
future wars will be cultural. Do you agree? Or is it possible that 
future wars will be sparked by "intellectual property" disputes on 
health? Isn't it time to rethink our mentality towards "property" and 
the way we value "patents" and "copyrights" over "natural resources", 
"animal diversity" and "human lives"?

(6) Do you believe that the Western employment mentality may have had 
a global impact on the guilt of poor people? Could it be that feeling 
guilty of being poor, of remaining unemployed, of not having the 
proper skills and not providing one's own children with what they 
need, have dramatically impacted on the immune response of billions 
of humans? Should some research start to investigate the impact of 
poverty related guilt (call it depression if you like)? Should one 
possible element of a cure to that guilt be "stop looking for jobs 
and start growing vegetables" or in other words through gardening 
give a sense of one's own property, responsibility and self-
sufficiency (see cross-bibliographies on the "healthcost of unemploy-
ment (33KB)" and the "immune effect of depression (48KB)" at 
http://nucwww.chem.sunysb.edu/prevges/biblio.html)? Or should instead 
sex (rape, prostitution, child abuse...) remain the global answer to 
hopelessness?

Hope this helps,
Christian Labadie, M.S.
mailto:CLabadie@t-online.de

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