[afro-nets] Ottawa Changes Bill to Get AIDS Drugs to Poor Countries

[Claudio Schuftan <claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn>]

From: "Vern Weitzel" <vern.weitzel@undp.org

Ottawa Making Major Change to Bill to Get AIDS Drugs to Poor Countries
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Canadian Press (04.20.04) - Susan Delacourt

In amendments expected to be formally put before Parliament to-
day, the Canadian government is removing a provision in a bill
that would have essentially given big, brand-name pharmaceutical
firms the first right to supply much-needed HIV/AIDS drugs to
developing countries.

The right-of-refusal clause would have given patent holders up
to 30 days to match and seize any contracts set up between ge-
neric drug firms and poor countries, which generic firms say re-
moves any incentives for them to negotiate contracts. The bill,
known as C-9, appears to have been mired in procedural debate in
the Commons since being introduced with much fanfare. Canadian
advocates who sounded alarms about the right-of-refusal provi-
sion gave measured praise to Prime Minister Paul Martin's gov-
ernment for fundamentally rethinking the bill. "Governments have
been known to do the right thing from time to time and this is
one of those times, I guess," Richard Elliott, of the Canadian
HIV/AIDS Legal Network, told the Toronto Star.

However, the new version of C-9 has not entirely levelled the
playing field between patent holders and generic firms, said
Elliott. In an apparent exchange for removing the right-of-
refusal provision, the government will strictly limit the price
and profit in any generic drug contracts. "We'd like to see that
gone, too, before this bill is passed," said Elliott.