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formatting fixed: Amsterdam Statement on WTO members states on access to medicine
http://www.cptech.org/ip/health/amsterdamstatement.html
AMSTERDAM STATEMENT TO WTO MEMBER STATES ON ACCESS TO MEDICINE
This statement was developed at the Increasing Access to Essential Drugs
in a Globalised Economy Working Towards Solutions conference, which was
organized by Health Action International, Médecins Sans Frontières, and
Consumer Project on Technology, and took place in Amsterdam, the
Netherlands, November 25-26, 1999.
Background:
- 1.3 billion people in the world live on less than US$1 per
day
- 20% of the world's population consumes 80% of the world's
resources
- Every 3 seconds a child dies of diseases of poverty
- 17 million deaths per year are due to infectious disease
- Currently 33 million people live with HIV, 7-8 million with
active TB
- More than 90% of all death and suffering from infectious diseases
occurs in the developing world
- 20% of the world's population uses 80% of the world-wide
production of medicines
- 0.2% of pharmaceutical research is devoted to acute respiratory
infections, TB, diarrhoea, while 18% of deaths are attributable to these
diseases.
In the developing world, a lucrative or "viable" market for lifesaving
drugs simply does not exist. But clearly what does exist is need. The
market has failed both to provide equitably priced medicines and to
ensure research and development for infectious disease. This lack of
affordable medicines and research and development for neglected diseases
is causing avoidable human suffering. Market forces alone will not
address this need: political action is demanded.
At the Amsterdam conference, participants called for health to be made a
priority at the WTO Seattle negotiations and demanded a balance between
the rights of patent holders and the rights of citizens in intellectual
property rights regulations. These views were shared by representatives
of UNDP, the WHO, the WTO, members of the Dutch and Thai governments,
and NGOs which attended the Amsterdam conference. The meeting brought
together 350 participants from 50 developing and developed countries,
from both the private and public sectors.
Organisers of the Amsterdam meeting call for:
The WTO to create a Standing Working Group on Access to Medicines
This working group would work with the Council for TRIPS and other WTO
bodies to review a number of issues concerning intellectual property
rules, as they relate to access to medicines.
The Standing Working Group on Access to Medicines should work within the
WTO to consider the impact of trade policies on people in developing and
least developed countries, and provide a public health framework for the
interpretation of key features of WTO agreements. The WHO and other
relevant international organizations should play an active role to
support the activities of the working group. The TRIPS Agreement is
meant to protect intellectual property rights while also protecting and
advancing various public interest objectives. This balance must be
addressed to ensure that people have access to essential and life-saving
medicines. As countries implement the TRIPS agreements the WTO will be
asked to resolve disputes in areas that are subject to numerous
different interpretations. The WTO is also constantly evaluating
proposals for changing the TRIPS Agreement. The Standing Working Group
on Access to Medicines would provide a forum for considering public
health issues and rights of people in both of these processes.
The proposed working group on access to medicines would examine a number
of important issues in the implementation of the existing TRIPS
Agreement, such as:
- Compulsory licensing of patents, as permitted under Article 31 of
the TRIPS Agreement. The working group should look for ways to best
operationalise this article;
- Allowing for exceptions to patent rights (under Article 30 of
TRIPS) for production of medicines for export markets, when the medicine
is exported to a country with a compulsory license. This would ensure
that countries with small domestic markets can
benefit from compulsory licensing;
- Allowing for exceptions to patent rights (under Article 30 of
TRIPS) for medical research, so that patents are not used to stop
research and hamper the introduction of generic medicines;
- Avoiding overly restrictive and anti-competitive interpretations
of TRIPS rules regarding protections of health registration data or
other unnecessary regulatory barriers to competition;
- Avoiding restrictive interpretations of trademark rights on
issues such as generic labelling and prescribing practices;
- Assessing the impact of inadequate reviews of patentability
standards (novelty and usefulness) on access to
medicines;
- Recommending differential rules for essential medicines, such as
simplified and fast track compulsory licensing procedures;
- Examining new paradigms for intellectual property rights and
health care, including "burden sharing" approaches for R&D that permit
countries to consider a wider range of policy instruments to promote
R&D; Assessing the practical burdens on poor countries of
administrating patent systems and resolving disputes over rights.
- National governments need to develop mechanisms to ensure
funding for R&D for neglected diseases
- New and innovative approaches to stimulating research in
essential medicines need to be devised, including:
- Increased public and donor funding of health care
research:
- Compulsory research obligations, such as requirements that
companies reinvest a percentage of pharmaceutical sales into R&D, either
directly or through public or private sector R&D programs;
- Development of a "Neglected Disease Act" that could be used to
stimulate private investment for communicable disease vaccines and
medicines.
--
James Love / Director, Consumer Project on Technology
http://www.cptech.org / love@cptech.org
P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
voice 202.387.8030 / fax 202.234.5176