[Ip-health] (no subject)

[Rohit Malpani]

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Oxfam, MSF: many poor lack access to drugs 5 years after WTO medicines
declaration


The Associated Press

The humanitarian groups Medecins Sans Frontieres and Oxfam said Tuesday
that live-saving medicines remain out of reach for most Africans
infected with the AIDS virus five years after a historic declaration
enabled developing nations to override patents and copy expensive
Western drugs.

MSF, also known by its English name Doctors Without Borders, said a
decision by the World Trade Organization in 2001 to allow countries
greater flexibility when facing public health crises has helped
significantly with some drugs for diseases such as HIV/AIDS, for which
first-line medications have dropped in price by 99 percent since 2000.

However, MSF said newer AIDS drugs and other treatments were still too
expensive for poorer countries. It said it was time that WTO rules -
outlined five years ago in the Qatari capital of Doha for the export of
generic drugs - be used.

"We're seeing many countries make use of the Doha Declaration to import
medicines, but what is the use if soon there are no generics to buy?"
asked Dr. Tido von Schoen-Angerer, who heads the MSF's campaign for
better medicine access. "If this doesn't happen, we'll be back where we
started in no time because treatment will become unaffordable again."

Under WTO rules, countries can issue so-called "compulsory licenses" to
disregard patent rights, but only after negotiating with the patent
owners and paying them adequate compensation. If they declare a public
health emergency, governments can skip the negotiating.

Although the measure is viewed as an option for poor countries also
facing the threat of a flu pandemic, critics say that the complicated
procedure to export such drugs has put off generic manufacturers.

While the WTO rules are clear on what is allowed, countries are often
dissuaded from breaking patents because it is still a sensitive
political issue, especially in countries home to large pharmaceutical
industries, MSF has said.

Oxfam noted that the World Health Organization says that 74 percent of
AIDS medicines are still under monopoly, and that 77 percent of Africans
still lack any access to AIDS treatment. One of the main reasons was the
pressure from rich countries on developing governments to respect the
patents of international pharmaceutical companies, Oxfam said.

"This is restricting generic competition and keeping prices high," an
Oxfam statement said.

But the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and
Associations said the main problem was that poor countries lacked the
hospitals, clinics, supplies and health workers needed to deliver the
medicines.

The industry group said compulsory licensing cannot offer a real
solution.

"These countries concerned have total per-capital health-care
expenditures of around US$10 a year, so being able to obtain
new-generation, second-line ARVs (antiretrovirals) at generic-level
prices of several hundred dollars per patient per year is not exactly a
panacea," an IFPMA statement said.

It said Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe had tried invoking compulsory
licensing for ARVs without making them significantly more available. And
although Indian generic manufacturers have been able to copy ARVs under
patent elsewhere, "actual access to ARVS in India was - and remains - on
a par with sub-Saharan Africa," IFPMA said.