[Ip-health] Sick people lose out in U.S.-Central American trade deal finalized today

[Sharonann Lynch]

2 press statements below on the Central American Free Trade Agreement.

CAFTA: U.S. Continues Obstruction of Access to AIDS Drugs, other
Essential Medicines  in Central America

For Immediate Release * December 17, 2003
Contact for more information: Asia Russell, +1 267.475.2645/ asia@healthgap=
.org
Sharonann Lynch, +1 646 645 5225/ salynch@healthgap.org

(Washington, DC) Last minute talks have successfully concluded
Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) -- minus Costa Rica.
Among the other highly controversial issues, the agreement will lock
in participating countries to adhere to overly restrictive
intellectual property protections for pharmaceutical companies sought
by the Bush Administration.

"The White House continues to push drug company protectionism in this
agreement and in the other agreements that are stepping stones for
the hemispheric-wide Free Trade of the Americas  (FTAA)," said Robert
Weissman of Health GAP.

The CAFTA will establish a regional trade agreement between the U.S.
and El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Four of the six
Latin American countries with the highest HIV prevalence are Central
American, according to the World Bank.  Costa Rica left the
negotiations early citing U.S. demands for opening its
telecommunications and insurance industries to foreign competition.
It is expected to resume talks on the deal in January.

"Lives will be at stake when Congress considers the CAFTA deal," said
said Asia Russell of Health GAP. Generic competition has lowered HIV
drug costs within Central America and is beginning to increase access
to treatment for some. If Bush gets his way, the CAFTA will lock
countries into tough new patent rules that will drive the cost of
life saving drugs up and delay or obstruct generic competition."

  Generic competition has driven down the price of AIDS drugs by more
than 98 percent, from $10,000 to $140 per person, per year. But those
price savings are only available to countries that can use generics,
according to the activists.

The Bush Administration, along with all WTO members, signed the Doha
Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health (Doha Declaration) in November
2001, reaffirming WTO member countries' right to break drug company
patent monopolies in order to promote access to medicines for all.
According to activists, the Bush Administration is disregarding this
pledge in the CAFTA by establishing new rules that are tougher than
what the WTO requires.

While the actual CAFTA negotiating text is secret, other trade deals
such as the US-Chile Free Trade Agreement, and the draft text of the
Free Trade Area of the Americas, reveal U.S. trade negotiators are
pursuing the same agenda throughout the region, through a number of
other bi- and plurilateral agreements in the Western Hemisphere.
There are a variety of ways these agreements would interfere with
countries' rights to promote generic competition. These include:
dramatic limitations to compulsory licensing - wherein a government
authorizes itself or a third party to make use of an on-patent
product, with payment of reasonable compensation to the patent
holder. Other provisions would require generic companies to redo
costly tests to obtain marketing approval - beyond the capacity of
almost all of the relatively small generic companies - or to delay
using the results of tests already completed by brand-name companies
for a period of five years, creating patent-like barriers to market
entry of generics, even where no patent exists.

# 30#
__________________________________________



STATEMENT OF ROBERT WEISSMAN,
CO-DIRECTOR, ESSENTIAL ACTION
ON THE CAFTA NEGOTIATIONS AND ACCESS TO MEDICINES

The United States Trade Representative has forced down the throats of
Central American countries enhanced patent protections. If the Bush
administration succeeds in ramming the agreement through the U.S.
Congress, the result will be that people die.

USTR should today be ashamed, rather than crowing.

By prioritizing the super-profit demands of Big Pharma over public
health imperatives, USTR has ignited an additional group of opponents
of CAFTA in Congress.

The actual CAFTA text remains secret -- secret only from the public;
negotiators and business know what has been agreed on -- but all
indications are that USTR has achieved the Big Pharma agenda of
demanding a range of provisions that will delay the entry of
price-lowering generic competition for medicines. These provisions
include:

* Monopolistic protections for safety and efficacy test data needed
to obtain marketing approval for pharmaceuticals.

* Patent-term extensions.

* Requirements that marketing approval be linked to patent status,
turning drug regulatory agencies into patent enforcement bodies.

* Limitations on the grounds under which compulsory licenses may be
issued (conflicting reports have emerged as to whether the U.S. is
demanding such provisions -- as it is in the Free Trade Area of the
Americas -- in CAFTA).

* Investment protections, based on NAFTA's notorious Chapter 11, that
would deter compulsory licensing and generic competition.

There is no defensible reason to include intellectual property rules
in CAFTA. All negotiating countries are members of the WTO, and bound
by its intellectual property rules. All agreed to the Doha
Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and the Public Health, requiring
countries to implement the WTO agreement in a fashion that would
"protect public health and, in particular, =85 promote access to
medicines for all." Inclusion of IP in CAFTA can only mean countries
will be more protective of Big Pharma's interest, at the expense of
expedited introduction of price-lowering generic competition, and at
the expense of their obligations under the Doha Declaration.

Essential Action is a Washington, D.C. corporate accountability group.
It focuses on intellectual property and global health issues.

--
Sharonann Lynch
salynch@healthgap.org
Health GAP (Global Access Project)
Tel  +1 212 674-9598
Mob +1 646 645-5225
http://www.healthgap.org