[Ip-health] Obstructive stance on generic drugs for poor

[James ARKINSTALL]

FINANCIAL TIMES

Obstructive stance on generic drugs for poor

By Ellen 't Hoen
Published: October 23 2006 03:00 | Last updated: October 23 2006 03:00
>From Ms Ellen F. M. 't Hoen.

Sir, Jacques J. Gorlin's comments (Letters, October 16) on compulsory
licences and pharmaceuticals are highly misleading. Many countries do use
those licences to produce or import generic medicines.Today about 50 per
cent of people around the world who are getting treatment for Aids depend
on Indian generic medicines. In the near future this will change when newer
drugs will be patented under World Trade Organisation trade-related
intellectual property rights (Trips) rules. Compulsory licensing will then
be even more important to ensure a steady supply but Trips put restrictions
on the export of medicines produced under a compulsory licence. The
so-called WTO August 30 decision of 2003 was supposed to provide a solution
to this problem. We now know that this remedy is very cumbersome and
unworkable.
M=E9decins Sans Fronti=E8res spent three years attempting to use a Canadian
law, based on this WTO decision, to buy drugs. It does not work. So it is
encouraging that
Pascal Lamy, the WTO director-general, recognises these limitations,
because the difficulty of getting these licences will affect the countries
that today have access to medicines under the Doha declaration. Dr Gorlin's
attempt to change the debate reflects the continuing obstruction on this
issue from the world's leading pharmaceutical concerns, which his company
represents.

Ellen F. M. 't Hoen,
M=E9decins Sans Fronti=E8res,
Access to Essential Medicines Campaign,
75544 Paris, France