[Ip-health] Lancet: USA-Morocco deal may extend drug patents to 30 years

[Nathan Ford]

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Lancet 06 December 2003


Medicine and health policy



USA-Morocco deal may extend drug patents to 30 years



A free trade agreement due to be signed between Morocco and the USA by the =
end of this year could threaten access to medicines, several non-government=
al organisations (NGOs) warned last week.

In separate statements, Morocco's Association de Lutte contre le SIDA (ALCS=
) and Act Up Paris accused the USA of aggressively pursuing a bilateral fre=
e trade agreement with Morocco to extend provisions required by World Trade=
 Organization (WTO). The agreement could increase the duration of patent pr=
otection from its current 20 years to nearly 30 years.

ALCS said countries that have already signed free trade agreements with the=
 USA have been forced to renounce some of their rights to use generic drugs=
. But, according to ALCS, the USA-Morocco draft agreement has infinitely "m=
ore constraining provisions" than those signed by other countries. "If thes=
e provisions are ratified . . . [it] will be a serious precedent for which =
the countries of the south will blame Morocco, but these countries will con=
tinue to battle for access to generic medicines", ALCS pointed out.

"The USA does not seem satisfied with the agreements made at an internation=
al level and they are trying to push through bilateral and regional agreeme=
nts with stricter standards on intellectual property than those agreed in t=
he WTO", Sabina Voogd, Nethelands Ministry of Foreign Affairs Policy Cohere=
nce Unit, told The Lancet. WTO acknowledges that the TRIPS agreement should=
 not stop countries taking measures to protect public health.

One of the provisions in the proposed draft is to make up for delays in the=
 patent office. "But these extensions have nothing to do with creating bett=
er inventions", comments Michael Davis (Cleveland State University College =
of Law, Ohio, USA).

"The problem is that the only type of patents to benefit from the extension=
 are medical ones. It is not clear why an aeronautical patent, for instance=
, should not get a similar extension", he says.

Moreover, according to Davis, the extra 3 years or so for finding new uses =
of intellectual property is a perversion of patent law. He said: "A new use=
 is entitled to its own patent if it is inventive. If it is not inventive, =
it is simply a violation of patent principles to extend the patent for a no=
n-inventive advance."

The generic industry employs thousands of people in Morocco and helps to sa=
ve the Health Ministry millions of dirhams per year. But Ga=EBlle Krikorian=
 of Act Up Paris complains that generic manufacturers are being excluded fr=
om the negotiations, which threaten to destroy the domestic generic industr=
y.

Khabir Ahmad


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