[Ip-health] MSF on Ecuador Presidential Decree -- includes exclusive rights in health registration data and other barriers for generic products

[James Love]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: MSF press release-What's the Cost for Health in Ecuador?
Date: Sat, 3 Jul 2004 22:11:31 -0400
From: Rachel COHEN <Rachel.COHEN@NEWYORK.MSF.ORG>

Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)

For Immediate Release

                   WHAT=E2=80=99S THE COST FOR HEALTH IN ECUADOR?
      A new Presidential decree threatens to place interests of US and
                   multinational pharmaceutical companies
            above the access to medicines of the Ecuadorian people

Quito, July 2nd, 2004 -- The international medical humanitarian
organization Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)
fears that a new Decree will make it much more difficult to obtain
affordable essential medicines in Ecuador. This Decree will have a
direct negative impact on the health of millions of Ecuadorians as it
deliberately seeks to limit the availability of generic medicines.

MSF has been able to study the draft text of the Decree. The Decree
includes measures, such as "data exclusivity", which would effectively
prevent the marketing of generic drugs in the country. It will even
result in the withdrawal of generic medicines already being used by
Ecuadorians.

The articles contained in this draft go far beyond the requirements of
the World Trade Organization (WTO)=E2=80=99s TRIPS Agreement. They also bre=
ach
the letter and the spirit of the WTO=E2=80=99s Ministerial Declaration on t=
he
TRIPS Agreement and Public Health, known as the "Doha Declaration", and
the 486 Decision of the Andean Community.

"If it signs this Decree, Ecuador will be adopting measures which no
international treaty obligates it to do. The only purpose seems to be to
protect the pharmaceutical multinationals from generic medicines,
thereby endangering the health of the Ecuadorian people," says Marc
Bosch, MSF Head of Mission in Ecuador. "Governments must defend their
right - and obligation - to protect public health and guarantee access
to essential medicines for their population."

At the IV Ministerial Conference of the WTO that took place on November
2001 in Doha, Qatar, all WTO members, including the US, unanimously
adopted the Doha Declaration, which placed the protection of public
health above the protection of intellectual property rights and, in
particular, affirmed the right of countries to take measures when
necessary to protect public health and promote access to medicines for all.

Yet in spite of this, the United States is seeking to hamper the
availability of affordable generic medicines. This will spell
catastrophe for MSF=E2=80=99s patients and millions of people living with
HIV/ADIS and other diseases in the region. The US has sought to do this
both through negotiations on free trade agreements with governments and
through direct pressure on governments to pass decrees that prevent the
marketing of generic medicines.

To guarantee the protection of public health and the promotion of
universal access to medicines, MSF believes that intellectual property
provisions should be left out of free trade agreements and that
governments should refuse to sign laws on intellectual property that
threaten the access of the population to generic medicines.

"As a medical humanitarian organization, we cannot accept the health
needs of our patients and millions of others being subordinated to the
commercial interests of the US and the multinational pharmaceutical
companies," says Marc Bosch. "We call upon the Ecuadorian government not
to give in to these pressures and to place the access to medicines of
the Ecuadorian people above any other commercial interest."

MSF is an independent, international medical humanitarian organization
that delivers emergency aid to victims of armed conflicts, epidemics,
natural and man-made disasters and to others who lack health  care due
to social or geographic marginalization in 78 countries throughout the
world. MSF was awarded the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize.

MSF has been present in Ecuador since 1996.




_____________________________________________
Kris Torgeson
Communications Director
Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)
333 Seventh Avenue, 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10001
Tel: 212-655-3764
Cell: 917-913-0183
Fax: 212-679-7016
_____________________________________________