[Ip-health] Re: Ip-health digest, Vol 1 #621 - 2 msgs
janet c collins
jcc60@juno.com
Sun, 7 Oct 2001 10:33:40 -0400
hi,
I agree with Michael. Yes it is time to put pharmaceuticals in the public
domain.
It should not be acceptable to any of us that only those with money, or
those who live in countries with health care programs , to be the only
ones to have access to medications for any illness. To deny people this
access is , in my opinion, to commit murder. We would most certainly say
that if we were on the receiving end of such decisions.
Arguments that suggest that in which case we should nationalize
everything are
philosophical conceits of very inferior nature.
janet collins
On Fri, 5 Oct 2001 12:01:03 -0400 (EDT)
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> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. TRIPS report in Kaiser HIV/AIDS Daily Summary (James Love)
> 2. It is time to nationalize the international pharmaceutical
> industry (Prof. Michael H. Davis)
>
> --__--__--
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 05 Oct 2001 10:16:00 -0400
> From: James Love <love@cptech.org>
> Organization: http://www.cptech.org
> To: IP-Health list <ip-health@lists.essential.org>
> Subject: [Ip-health] TRIPS report in Kaiser HIV/AIDS Daily Summary
>
>
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: NEWS: TRIPS report in Kaiser HIV/AIDS Daily Summary
> Date: Thu, 4 Oct 2001 11:39:13 -0400 (EDT)
> From: Julie Davids <jdavids@CritPath.Org>
> Reply-To: healthgap@CritPath.Org
> To: Multiple recipients of list <healthgap@CritPath.Org>
>
> DRUG ACCESS
>
> 4. WTO Delegates From Developing Countries Propose Clarifying
> TRIPS
> Language to Facilitate Access to Cheaper AIDS Drugs
>
> World Trade Organization delegates from 52 developing
> countries on Sept. 19 asked other WTO ministers to approve a
> proposal
> that would clarify language in the Trade-Related Aspects of
> International Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement to say that TRIPS
> would "not prevent governments from taking measures necessary to
> protect public health," including the production or importation of
> generic AIDS drugs. The countries submitted a draft of their
> proposal to WTO delegates gathered at last month's TRIPS Council
> Special Discussion on access to medicines. The draft called on the
> WTO members to "state, without qualification, that the TRIPS
> agreement shall not prevent governments from taking measures
> necessary to protect public health" (Oxfam/MSF/TWN release, 9/20).
> The proposal specifically asked the ministers to "recognize that the
>
> TRIPS text grants the WTO member states sufficient flexibility to
> enact health policies that ensure access to affordable medicines
> without necessarily constituting a violation of intellectual
> property
> rights." Governments of developing nations would also be permitted
> to engage in compulsory licensing and parallel importation. In
> addition, developing nations would be protected from "any legal
> action for alleged violations of the TRIPS accord, including the
> lawsuits" currently pending in several countries (IPS/Global
> Treatment Access Campaign release, 9/20).
>
> U.S. Opposes Proposal
>
>
> The countries' proposal, however, was blocked by the United
> States and Switzerland, whose arguments against the proposal were
> supported by Japan, Australia and Canada. During the special
> session, the United States presented a paper stating that "there is
> essentially no problem with the [TRIPS] agreement and no need for
> clarifications." The European Union "accepted some of the concerns"
>
> put forth by the developing nations, but "stopped well short of full
>
> endorsement" of their request (Oxfam/MSF/TWN release, 9/20). Paul
> Davis, coordinator of domestic and government affairs for the AIDS
> group Health GAP Coalition, said that if the United States and
> Switzerland had not opposed the countries' proposal, delegates at
> the
> session would have likely supported it. Such approval would have
> allowed the proposal to go into effect "more or less immediately"
> before being brought up during the WTO's Fourth Ministerial
> Conference, which is scheduled to be held Nov. 9-13 in Doha, Qatar.
> If delegates at last month's meeting had agreed to the proposal, it
> would likely have been ratified "without controversy" at the Doha
> summit, Davis stated. He added that the WTO ministers on both sides
>
> of the issue will likely try to work out a compromise proposal to
> present at the Doha conference. If they do not come to a
> compromise,
> the issue will be debated during the conference.
>
> Subject of Intense Debate
>
>
> AIDS activists have criticized the U.S.-backed paper,
> stating
> that the United States is putting profits over human lives by
> rejecting the countries' proposal. Davis stated, "It's pretty
> excessive that in the middle of a health catastrophe where 8,000
> people a day are dying from a lack of medicine that [U.S. Trade
> Representative] Robert Zoellick is insisting on enforcement of
> monopoly protections on medicines in countries that constitute no
> market." Khalil Elouardighi, a spokesperson from ACT UP Paris,
> added, "The rich countries are still using the WTO to block accepted
>
> treatment and a lot of people in AIDS organizations are demanding
> that the WTO firmly support the rights of poor countries to use drug
>
> copies" (Meredith McGroarty, Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 10/4).
> The aid group Oxfam U.K. said that blocking the countries' requests
> will further detract from the credibility of the patent system. An
> Oxfam statement said, "Given that the developing country paper is
> making extremely modest proposals, its rejection by the
> industrialized countries would bring the TRIPS agreement and the
> patents system further into disrepute, reduce the chances of
> consensus over a new round of trade talks and further damage the
> public standing of the WTO" (Oxfam statement, 9/20). In a joint
> press release, Oxfam, Medicins Sans Frontieres and Third World
> Network said that the handling of the issue of AIDS drugs will have
> larger implications for trade and public health. Cecilia Oh of
> Third
> World Network said, "The response of the industrialized countries to
>
> the problems with TRIPS is the litmus test for whether the WTO will
> put people's needs before the commercial interests of its most
> powerful members" (Oxfam/MSF/TWN release, 9/20). ACT UP Paris is
> urging WTO Director-General Michael Moore to encourage efforts to
> broaden poorer countries' access to cheaper AIDS medicines, stating
> that "it is the director's moral duty to respond to people with AIDS
>
> and ... NGOs, and to officially support developing countries'
> request
> for access to
>
> Rounding Up Support for Generic Medicine Proposal
>
>
> More than 35 AIDS and health groups, including ACT UP Paris,
>
> ACT UP New York, the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, Family Health
> International and the Health GAP Coalition, signed an open letter to
>
> the WTO calling on trade delegates to approve the developing
> nations'
> proposal. "In spite of recent assurances by certain political
> leaders, the practical policy of [the United States and the European
>
> Union] is to deny poorest countries, through covert economic
> threats,
> the right to implement legal provisions which they themselves use
> commonly in fields other than health. ... It is paramount that
> developing countries now be left to produce and distribute quality,
> affordable generic drugs in peace, without fear of economic
> retaliation," the letter states, adding, "Beyond the moratorium
> required by the African countries, the rules of the game need to be
> changed. The WTO cannot be allowed to block access to health" (ACT
> UP Paris Web site, 10/4). In addition, Oxfam U.K. features on its
> Web site its "Health Before Wealth" campaign, which encourages
> viewers to "demand [that] the WTO change its patent rules." The
> campaign includes an online petition to which readers can add their
> name and resident country (Oxfam U.K. Web site, 10/4).
>
> Drug Companies Fight Back
>
>
> The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers
>
> Associations issued a press release in response to the special
> session criticizing the developing nations' proposal. Calling the
> proposal "inappropriate and unjustified," the organization cites
> statistics indicating intellectual property rights are "not a
> barrier
> to access to medicines." The release states that 95% of the
> medicines "considered by the World Health Organization as 'essential
>
> drugs' are non-patented," adding that the "real barriers" to access
> to health care in poorer countries include lack of funding for
> health
> services and problems with health care facilities and staff (IFPMA
> release, 9/21). Several IFPMA officials added that efforts to
> broaden TRIPS would prompt drug firms to decrease their research and
>
> development for AIDS drugs. Dr. Rolf Krebs, chair of the German
> drug
> firm Boehringer Ingelheim and president of IFPMA, said, "More
> flexibility in TRIPS would be disastrous for continuing investment
> in
> research and development on AIDS." Harvey Bale, director general of
>
> IFPMA, added that the number of AIDS drugs under development has
> declined over the past three years "as a campaign against the big
> [pharmaceutical] companies ha[s] unfolded." Bale and Krebs said
> that
> if patent regulations are eased for HIV/AIDS drugs, investors in
> drug
> firms would pressure the firms to "focus on other diseases that
> caused less controversy, like cancer" (Evans, Reuters, 9/19). The
> release states, "IFPMA calls on all [WTO] member states to take an
> active role in supporting strong implementation and enforcement of
> the TRIPS agreement and other relevant WTO actions to protect
> innovation and promote access to quality health care worldwide. The
>
> industry reaffirms that coordinated and sustainable efforts must be
> made to improve access to HIV/AIDS drugs. Measures which focus on
> weakening intellectual property rights in the name of 'improving
> access,' however, will actually divert decision-makers away from
> addressing the real barriers to access" (IFPMA rele
> --
>
> Julie Davids
> ACT UP Philadelphia
> Health GAP Coalition
>
> c/o Critical Path AIDS Project
> 1233 Locust Street
> Philadelphia, PA 19107
> 215-474-9329
>
> --__--__--
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Fri, 05 Oct 2001 10:44:35 -0400
> From: "Prof. Michael H. Davis" <michael.davis@law.csuohio.edu>
> To: James Love <love@cptech.org>
> Cc: IP-Health list <ip-health@venice.essential.org>
> Subject: [Ip-health] It is time to nationalize the international
> pharmaceutical industry
>
> This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
> --------------3DE41DA19CFCE9EC03966F4F
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
> > Since federal funding in the U.S., for instance, constitutes the
> bulk
> > of investment in pharmaceuticals already, and the only important
> > investment in important drugs (the industry relying on
> small-investment
> > "me-too" drugs and baldness cures, for instance), it is only
> logical,
> > in the face of industry threats to extort beneficial laws in
> exchange
> > for production of essesntial drugs, to complete the process.
>
> There is no logic in having national airlines, national health care,
> national universities, and national armies, and not having
> completely
> national pharmaceutical production as well. Since most R&D is
> already
> governmental, production and distribution should be nationalized as
> well.
> Not only would this assure reasonable access to all medicines,
> research
> directed at the most important problems, and transparency in
> cost-benefit
> calculations, but it would avoid this kind of shameful blackmail
> that
> arises every time citizens demand better pharmaceutical practices.
> Instead of giving us what we deserve, the industry habitually
> threatens
> to stop research unless it is given absolute property rights in
> knowledge
> we all pay for by way of massive federal support for scientific
> research.
>
> And are the half-measures that have become the focus of this dispute
> worthy of this battle?
>
> Mickey
>
> >
> >
> > Drug Companies Fight Back
> >
> > The International Federation of Pharmaceutical
> Manufacturers
> > Associations issued a press release ... Several IFPMA officials
> added
> > that efforts to
> > broaden TRIPS would prompt drug firms to decrease their research
> and
> > development for AIDS drugs. ... Bale and Krebs said that
> > if patent regulations are eased for HIV/AIDS drugs, investors in
> drug
> > firms would pressure the firms to "focus on other diseases that
> > caused less controversy, like cancer" (Evans, Reuters, 9/19). The
> > release states, "IFPMA calls on all [WTO] member states to take an
> > active role in supporting strong implementation and enforcement of
> > the TRIPS agreement ... Measures which focus on
> > weakening intellectual property rights in the name of 'improving
> > access,' however, will actually divert decision-makers away from
> > addressing the real barriers to access" (IFPMA rele
> > --
> >
> > Julie Davids
> > ACT UP Philadelphia
> > Health GAP Coalition
> >
> > c/o Critical Path AIDS Project
> > 1233 Locust Street
> > Philadelphia, PA 19107
> > 215-474-9329
> > _______________________________________________
> > Ip-health mailing list
> > Ip-health@lists.essential.org
> > http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/ip-health
>
> --
> You can access my papers on the Social Science Research Network
> (SSRN)
> through the following url:
> http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=230701
>
>
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> --------------3DE41DA19CFCE9EC03966F4F--
>
>
>
> --__--__--
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> End of Ip-health Digest
FEED THE CHILDREN. DROP FOOD, NOT BOMBS.
STOP THE HYSTERIA. TELL THE TRUTH.
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