AFRO-NETS> Generic drugs - WTO breakthrough, US drug makers bully

[Claudio Schuftan <aviva@netnam.vn>]

Generic drugs - WTO breakthrough, US drug makers bully
------------------------------------------------------

WTO - Australia: WTO Ministers Reach Break Through Drugs Deal At Syd-
ney Talks

Agence France-Presse - November 15, 2002
Neil Sands
http://ww2.aegis.org/news/afp/2002/AF021145.html

SYDNEY, Nov 15 (AFP) - Leading trade ministers agreed on a plan 
Thursday give the world's poorest nations access to affordable medi-
cines, a breakthrough in the effort to tackle global health crises 
like HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, officials said.

The deal came at a heavily-guarded meeting of trade ministers from 25 
nations that was called to kickstart flagging efforts to liberalise 
global trade and has been marked by sporadic clashes between police 
and anti-globalisation protestors.

The meeting agreed to back changes that will allow some developing 
nations to manufacture generic drugs now protected by Western patents 
and export the medicines to other needy countries on a case-by-case 
basis.

The agreement topped the agenda at the Sydney meeting, which was at-
tended by a number of African countries such as Nigeria, Senegal and 
Lesotho which currently have to import expensive AIDS/HIV drugs from 
the West.

Also attending were ministers from the United States, the European 
Union and Japan, along with new director-general of the World Trade 
Organisation (WTO), Supachai Panitchpakdi.

A member of the US trade delegation said the drugs deal represented a 
success for the meeting, which then moved on to discuss dismantling 
agricultural trade barriers.

"There is a broad consensus that the concerns of the poor countries 
are a priority that they will be working to address."

The WTO agreed at a summit in Doha, Qatar, a year ago to let develop-
ing nations override patents held by pharmaceutical companies in or-
der to produce cheaper generic drugs in times of medical crises.

But it barred those countries from exporting the generic drugs, leav-
ing the poorest states which have no pharmaceutical manufacturing ca-
pacity in the lurch. The proposal agreed to Friday is a compromise 
between developing nations that wanted to scrap the export controls 
on patented medicines and the EU, United States and Switzerland, 
which have large pharmaceutical industries and fear Western markets 
would be flooded with cheap, generic medicines.

The plan would grant waivers on drug patents on a case-by-case basis 
and seek tight controls on trade in the generic medicines.

Outside the meeting, 35 people were arrested as scuffles broke out 
between riot police and anti-globalisation protestors.

About 1,500 protestors ignored an official ban on demonstrations for 
the duration of the discussions and marched on the talk's venue.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard labelled the protestors a dis-
grace and said they did not understand that "trade is even more valu-
able to developing countries than aid".


--
US drug makers accused of bullying

Sarah Boseley, Health Editor
Thursday November 14, 2002
The Guardian

The US government and the giant pharmaceutical companies are continu-
ing to bully poor countries to tighten up their patent rules, hamper-
ing efforts to obtain cheap medicines for people with diseases such 
as HIV/AIDS, according to a new report.

One year after the historic Doha declaration of the World Trade Or-
ganisation, which said that poor countries could put their public 
health needs before compliance with patent rules and buy or make 
cheap copies of brand name drugs, Oxfam's review finds that US bully-
ing is partly responsible for the lack of so many of the vitally-
needed medicines.

Each year the US government produces a trade report known as Special 
301, in which the trade representative names countries which it con-
siders to have inadequate protection for patents. Being named is a 
warning of potential trade sanctions.

The USTR named 27 countries in this year's Special 301 report. This 
is 66% of those that the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of 
America complained about, compared with 61% last year, Oxfam found. 
The complaints were mainly directed against those countries that 
manufacture cheap generic versions of patented medicines.

"It is now widely accepted that unduly restrictive patent protection 
raises prices and therefore reduces access for poor people," says the 
report.

"Price discounts by companies can help but generic competition is the 
only sustainable way of reducing prices and increasing access. This 
in turn requires a more flexible application of patent law in devel-
oping countries. And for this to happen, the US government and phar-
maceutical companies must stop their bullying." 

--
Claudio Schuftan
mailto:aviva@netnam.vn

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