[Ip-health] China, AIDS and patents: article in South China Morning Post

[Kate Krauss]

Copyright 2001 South China Morning Post Ltd. =A0
South China Morning Post
November 2, 2001=20

SECTION: News; Pg. 10

LENGTH: 493 words=20

HEADLINE: Firms may be allowed to copy Aids drugs

BYLINE: Raymond Li=20


Health authorities may give the go-ahead for mainland companies to copy
patented Aids drugs if multinational pharmaceutical firms do not cut their
prices.=20

Liu Kangmai, an official at the Health Ministry's Aids Prevention and
Control Centre, told the Beijing Star Daily on Wednesday that the Governmen=
t
intended to cut the price of Aids drugs by 90 per cent to make them
affordable.=20

According to Mr Liu, Beijing has two options: to force foreign
pharmaceutical firms to reduce prices or to ignore patents they hold on
expensive HIV drugs. He said if Beijing took the latter course, it would be
following the example of the Brazilian Government, which allowed the copyin=
g
of patented Aids drugs. The Brazilians cited a special clause in the World
Trade Organisation charter that some products could be exempted from
international treaty protections - including the convention on internationa=
l
patents - in life-threatening cases.

The Government is yet to start negotiations with foreign drug companies, bu=
t
officials have indicated it may take a tough line if efforts to reach an
agreement fail.=20

Zhao Wenli, a spokesman at the Aids Prevention and Control Centre, sought t=
o
play down the report. "Because we are about to enter the World Trade
Organisation, China is abiding by world treaties, including the
international patent rights law," he said.
But Mr Zhao said the ministry was looking into ways to reach a compromise
with foreign firms.

"We have to find some way to lower the drug prices in order to save the
lives of Chinese Aids patients," Mr Zhao said.
According to the Beijing Star Daily, 74 Aids sufferers were being treated
with a cocktail of drugs from US-based companies and their conditions had
stabilised.=20

"I was drowning, and someone came to the rescue," was how one patient
described feeling after the treatment worked.
However, a number of participants had to drop out of the subsidised
programme because the costs were still too high, the report said.
"I really don't know if I can last until the drugs are affordable," one
woman on the programme said.

After years of ignoring the deadly virus and denying there was any problem
with the spread of HIV on the mainland, the Government has finally
confronted the cost of dealing with it, both in financial and in human
terms. But the potential for mounting medical costs has left it feeling the
pinch.=20

According to Mr Zhao, the average Aids patient spends from 100,000 yuan (HK=
$
94,350) to 200,000 yuan each year on medical bills - well beyond the reach
of most Chinese patients.

A recent official tally of the number of people on the mainland who are HIV
positive has grown by 5,661 in the past nine months to 28,133.
But the real number of people living with the virus was estimated by many
experts to be above 600,000 by the end of September. Of the registered
patients, 1,208 have developed full cases of Aids and 641 have died.



LOAD-DATE: November 2, 2001