KAISER AIDS Summary: U.S. OFFICIAL WON'T BUDGE ON TRADE ISSUE

[James Love <love@cptech.org>]

Peter Lurie sent this item from the Kaiser AIDS summary.
US policy appears to be unchanged.  

Jamie



#1   COMPULSORY LICENSING:  U.S. OFFICIAL PLEDGES ASSISTANCE BUT
     WON'T BUDGE ON TRADE ISSUE
     U.S. Deputy Commerce Secretary Robert Mallett promised a
group of Africans Tuesday that the U.S. government would do
everything in its power to bring cheaper AIDS drugs to the
continent -- as long as the efforts do not violate international
patent laws.  Urging pharmaceutical companies to make their drugs
more affordable, Mallett said, "Find a way to put your drugs
within reach of the millions for whom they are literally matters
of life or death.  For the United States' part, we will work to
find a way to make these drugs affordable without breaking any of
the hard-won intellectual agreements about the rights to a good
idea."  Mallett, leading the U.S. delegation at the World
Economic Forum's regional economic summit in Durban, told the
Black Management Forum that controversy over South Africa's compulsory 
licensing and parallel importing measures has been
"one disagreement that's caused some controversy both here and in
the United States."  He attributed the dispute to the law
"allowing South Africa's health minster to bring in less
expensive AIDS drugs -- in violation of their patent
protections."  He reiterated that "the U.S. would defend the
rights of companies to protect intellectual property," but added
that his country "did not believe that six million South Africans
infected with HIV could afford to spend more" than 6000 Rand a
month, or about $990 for treatment (ANC release, 7/6).


-- 
James Love, Director, Consumer Project on Technology
I can be reached at love@cptech.org, by telephone 202.387.8030,
by fax at 202.234.5176. CPT web page is http://www.cptech.org