[Ip-health] Toronto Star: Ottawa moving on low-cost drug review

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

The Toronto Star

November 25, 2006 Saturday

Ottawa moving on low-cost drug review

BYLINE: Tanya Talaga, Toronto Star

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A23

LENGTH: 308 words

The federal government is taking the first step in reviewing legislation
created to send low-priced generic drugs to countries in need.Canada's
Access to Medicines Regime, created two years ago, has yet to send one
pill
overseas to poor countries that desperately require medication to fight
public health threats such as tuberculosis, AIDS and malaria. In August,
during the International AIDS Conference held in Toronto, Health
Minister
Tony Clement announced an "immediate" review of the bill to find out
why it
wasn't working and quickly fix it. The law, formerly called the Jean
Chretien Pledge to Africa Act, was intended to allow generic drug
companies
in Canada to produce and export much-needed lower cost versions of
brand-name drugs to poor nations.But that review finally began yesterday
with the release of a consultation paper calling for interested parties
to
outline why they feel the bill doesn't work. The written comments need
to
be handed in to Industry Canada or Health Canada by Jan. 24, 2007.
They'll
be posted online. The review should be completed by next May, and will
be
followed by the tabling of a report in Parliament.Richard Elliott of the
Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, said this review will be meaningful
only
if sweeping changes are made. "What we've said to them is you need to
make
this a much more streamlined process than the cumbersome process in
place
now," he said. "We've given them concrete ideas to make it a
reality."Along
with Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) the two groups
said
they'd like to see changes such as the government allowing any
pharmaceutical product to be eligible for compulsory licensing. They
also
want the establishment of a maximum number of days set for generic and
brand-name pharma companies to negotiate a voluntary licence before a
compulsory licence is issued.






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Thiru Balasubramaniam
Geneva Representative
CPTech
voice +41.22.791.6727
fax +41.22.723.2988
mobile +41 76 508 0997
thiru@cptech.org