[Ip-health] Victoria Times Colonist (Apr 7/04): Op-ed on Bill C-9 ("Drug plan rings false as millions keep dying")

[Richard Elliott]

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>PUBLICATION:    Times Colonist (Victoria)
>  DATE:  2004.04.07
>  EDITION:       Final
>  SECTION:       Comment
>
>  BYLINE:        Alan Cassels and Blaise Salmon
>  SOURCE:        Special to Times Colonist
>  ILLUSTRATION:  Photo: One third of the pharmaceutical industry budget
>goesto marketing and advertising, less than 12 per cent to R&D;
>
>NOTE:   Alan Cassels is a drug policy researcher at the school ofhealth
>information science at the University of Victoria. Blaise Salmon is
>president of the global health advocacy group RESULTS Canada.
>
>DRUG PLAN RINGS FALSE AS MILLIONS KEEP DYING
>
>Delivering humanitarian aid "is not about business. It's about care." This
>is a stunning claim, made recently in a large ad in the Globe and Mail and
>other newspapers, coming as it does from Canada's brand name pharmaceutica=
l
>industry. After all, nothing is stopping the industry from supplying vital
>drugs to millions of desperately sick people in poor countries at deep
>discounts, or even giving them away. If it's not about business, then what
>seems to be the problem?
>
>A more accurate caption would have been: "It's not about care. It's about
>marketing." Overall, one-third of pharmaceutical industry budgets are spen=
t
>on marketing and advertising. In contrast to the image the industry likes
>to present, less than 12 per cent is spent on research and development for
>new and improved drugs.
>
>What has caused Big Pharma to feel it necessary to go public with this
>misleading nonsense? The federal government is considering an innovative
>bill to allow generic drugs to be produced for poor countries ravaged by
>diseases such as AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. And the brand name
>companies want to make sure that the new legislation doesn't make any dent
>in their profits.
>
>In 2003, after years of debate, the World Trade Organization cleared the
>way for countries to enact legislation to provide essential medicines for
>millions of suffering people in poor countries. Canada is the first countr=
y
>to bring forward legislation intended to increase access to lifesaving
>drugs in the developing world.
>
>Dubbed the Jean Chretien Pledge to Africa Act, Bill C-9 is to allow
>Canadian generic drug companies to do what they can't currently do: make
>and export patented drugs to help alleviate the suffering of the two
>billion people on our planet who lack access to essential medicines.
>
>Who would be against letting Canadian companies make essential drugs more
>affordable and more easily accessed by the world's poorest people?
>Thousands of poor people die every day from treatable diseases such as
>AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. So why are so many humanitarian groups
>protesting against Bill C-9 in its current form?
>
>The main problem with this bill, being discussed in Parliament, is that it
>gives the brand name pharmaceutical companies the opportunity to block
>competition. Any company holding the Canadian patent on a medicine gets th=
e
>"right of first refusal," and thus can shut out the generic drug companies
>at their whim. This may occur even after a generic maker has negotiated a
>deal with a developing country to sell a cheaper version of a drug. In
>effect, the "right of first refusal" would kill any incentive for generic
>companies to negotiate contracts in the first place.
>
>The brand name industry has responded to this criticism by proposing an
>amendment they call an "equal opportunity to supply." However, this is
>merely another name for the same idea. Brand name companies would still be
>given an opportunity to take over contracts negotiated by generics. What
>incentive would a company have to go out and negotiate a deal, only to hav=
e
>it end up going to a competitor?
>
>At the end of the day, legislation with this type of clause wouldn't make
>much difference to the prices of medicines for people in the developing
>world.
>
>In general, there is a legitimate need to protect the "research and
>development" necessary to produce new drugs. However, in this case, it is
>simply not a valid concern. Poor countries make up only a tiny fraction of
>the revenue from brand name drug sales. Drug company profits and research
>budgets are not threatened in any significant way by Bill C-9.
>
>Of course, generic drug companies are not selfless saints. The head of one
>prominent generic drug company has become one of the richest men in Canada
>through selling not-so-cheap generic drugs.
>
>However, at the end of the day, what we need is a law that will bring real
>competition to the market for drugs for the poorest. Good legislation will
>result in both brand name companies and generics competing to provide drug=
s
>to the world's poor at the lowest possible prices.
>
>And the prices must be rock bottom to make a difference. More than 1.2
>billion people subsist on less than $1 per day. These people simply can't
>afford the needed drugs, even if it is a matter of life and death. And the=
y
>can't expect much help from their governments. Government health spending
>in the poorest countries is under $10 per person per year, compared to wel=
l
>over $2,000 per person per year in Canada.
>
>A commentary in the Canadian Medical Association Journal recently noted
>that the lack of essential drugs for millions of people in developing
>countries afflicted by treatable infectious disease is a "ticking clock of
>death."
>
>If Paul Martin does not resist the pressure from Big Pharma to undermine
>the humanitarian intent of Bill C-9, we Canadians should hang our heads in
>shame.

Richard Elliott
Director, Legal Research & Policy / Directeur, politiques et recherche
juridique
Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network / R=E9seau juridique canadien VIH/sida
890 Yonge Street, Suite 700, Toronto, Canada M4W 3P4
Tel : +1 (416) 595-1666                 Fax +1 (416) 595-0094
E-mail: relliott@aidslaw.ca     Web: www.aidslaw.ca

The Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network is a partner organisation of the
AIDS Law Project of South Africa, and a non-governmental organization in
Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the
United Nations. //
Le R=E9seau juridique canadien VIH/sida est un organisme partenaire  du AID=
S
Law Project
de l'Afrique du Sud et ONG dot=E9 de statut consultatif sp=E9cial aupr=E8s =
du
Conseil =E9conomique
et social des Nations Unies.
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