[Ip-health] Lancet: US position undoubtedly in line with desires of industry

[James Love]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Lancet: US position undoubtedly in line with desires of industry.
Date: Fri, 13 Dec 2002 15:17:12 +0100
From: Ellen T HOEN <Ellen.T.HOEN@paris.msf.org>

For IP health

Lancet 14 December 2002

No agreement reached in talks on access to cheap drugs


At a meeting on Nov 25-27 in Geneva, Switzerland, the Council for the
Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs)
was expected to finalise a plan that would enable generic drug
manufacturers in countries such as Brazil, India, and China to export drugs
still under patent, under certain circumstances, to countries with little
or no manufacturing industry. Instead the TRIPs Council meeting, which
followed a "mini-ministerial" meeting held earlier in November (see Lancet
2002; 360: 1670), ended without any prospect of reaching agreement.

During the meeting the USA, Japan, and Canada argued in favour of the
introduction of a temporary waiver against bringing disputes to the WTO if
the case concerns generics that are to be imported to the least developed
countries. Other countries, particularly developing countries, supported by
groups such as Oxfam and M=E9decins Sans Fronti=E8res, preferred a permanen=
t
amendment of TRIPs. This, they suggested, would offer certainty to all
parties and an encouragement to manufacturers of generics to gear up for
larger-scale production.

At present, a WTO agreement interpreting TRIPs, known as the "Doha
Declaration", allows countries to issue compulsory licences during national
emergencies such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and other epidemics.
In these circumstances, a local third-party manufacturer may produce the
necessary drugs for domestic use and reasonable compensation must be paid
to the patent holder.

At the meeting, the USA attempted to limit the diseases that might be
covered by the new agreement to HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, and
"other infectious epidemics of comparable gravity and scale that may arise
in the future". This restrictive language was not acceptable to other
members, however. Disagreement also arose at the meeting as to what might
constitute reasonable compensation and who might be liable to pay it.

The USA further endeavoured to limit the number of countries that might
benefit from the importation of cheaper generic versions of patented drugs.
The Council agreed that the 49 least developed countries should be
automatically entitled to benefit, but no agreement was reached on the
extension of this to other developing countries. Developing countries
rejected this division.

The US position is undoubtedly in line with the desires of industry. A
letter dated 25 Nov, 2002, from 20 pharmaceutical companies to the US Trade
Representative, Robert Zoellick, states: "An open-ended or unclear
exception to the standards for patent protection would seriously undermine
our interest and set back the long-term public health objectives Doha was
designed to achieve. We urge you to negotiate a solution that is
specifically limited to the diseases that were the focus of the Doha
Declaration, namely HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria and other epidemics of similar
scale. In addition, it should be clear that only truly disadvantaged
countries in sub-Saharan Africa, be the recipient of the changed rules."

Bebe Loff