[Ip-health] Please endorse U.S. Cong. sign-on letter regarding access to medicines

[Sarah Rimmington]

Dear Friends,

We are writing to ask you to sign your organization onto a letter to
members of Congress asking them to co-sponsor Senate Resolution
241/House Resolution 525, calling for a new direction in U.S. trade
policy that encourages both access to essential medicines and the
innovation of new medical technologies to promote public health in
developing countries. Senator Sherrod Brown and Representative Tom Allen
introduced the resolution in July 2007. The letter follows below.

This is a resolution, not a bill, meaning it expresses the sense of
Congress rather than making law. But we think it is a strategic, and not
merely a symbolic, initiative.

First, it gives us a vehicle to talk to Members of Congress, and to get
them to commit to a broad pro-access-to-medicines position: both the
principle that countries have the right to use flexibilities in
international law regarding patents and related intellectual property,
and to oppose specific ways the United States has pressured countries to
extend monopoly protections for Big Pharma (including through trade
agreements and implicit threats to impose trade sanctions through
"Section 301" listings). The resolution lets us talk directly about
access to medicines issues, without being buried in a broader debate
about trade agreements.

Second, it combines the idea of facilitating access to medicines with
promoting more health-driven research and development (R&D). This is
crucial, because it challenges the brand-name industry on the grounds
that it claims to justify its high prices and monopolies: the need for
more innovation.

Third, it gives us a real chance to affect the overall policy framework
on trade and medicines issues. If we can get key senators and
representatives to co-sponsor and work for the resolution -- most
importantly, Senators Clinton and Obama -- we can look to future U.S.
administrations and future Congresses to pursue and insist on trade
policies that are more public health-friendly. (In this regard, it is
worth noting that former President Bill Clinton has endorsed efforts by
Thailand and Brazil to use flexibilities available under international
law to speed up the introduction of generic competition for important
medicines.)

To endorse the letter or for more information, please contact Sarah
Rimmington at srimmington@essentialinformation.org as soon as possible,
but at
the latest by Thursday September 6, 2007. Please note we are seeking the
endorsement of American organizations only.

Thank-you,
Sarah Rimmington
Essential Action



Dear Senator:

We are writing to urge you to co-sponsor Senate Resolution 241, calling
for a new direction in U.S. trade policy that encourages both access to
essential medicines and the innovation of new medical technologies to
promote public health in developing countries.

The resolution calls on the United States to:

=95 Honor the commitments it made in the 2001 World Trade Organization
(WTO) Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health. The
Doha Declaration affirms that WTO Members may use "to the full" the
flexibilities in the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspect of Intellectual
Property Rights (TRIPS) "to protect public health and, in particular, to
promote access to medicines for all," including the issuance of
compulsory licenses on grounds determined by member states. Compulsory
licenses permit countries to import or produce lower-priced generic
versions of on-patent medicines to promote and protect public health.

=95 Refrain from punishing or threatening trade partners for using TRIPS
flexibilities to advance public health objectives. Earlier this year,
the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) cited Thailand's lawful issuance of
compulsory licenses for three important, high-priced drugs as a reason
to place the country on the Special 301 Priority Watch list. USTR also
complained in Brazil's Special 301 listing that the country was
considering a lawful compulsory license (which it has since issued).
USTR has also cited numerous countries for not providing monopolies
("data exclusivity") for use of clinical test data generated by
brand-name pharmaceutical companies, a rule which exceeds obligations
under the TRIPS Agreement and causes serious harm to public health in
developing countries.

=95 Refrain from seeking intellectual property measures more stringent than
those provided for in TRIPS. Bilateral and regional trade agreements
negotiated by the United States over the last decade contain a wide
range of "TRIPS-plus" measures, such as data exclusivity, that slow the
introduction of generic competition.

=95 Support new global norms for promoting medical research and
development that provide a sustainable basis for a needs-driven
essential health agenda. Much of the opposition to the use of compulsory
licensing and other public health safeguards is based upon concerns that
such measures will undermine R&D for new medicines. The resolution
addresses this concern in a new and positive way. Several health groups
and experts are calling for a new global framework that focuses on
measures to support priority medical R&D, as an alternative to the
current global framework which focuses on tough intellectual property
rules and other measures to promote high drug prices. The World Health
Organization has created an Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG) to
discuss the feasibility and benefits of a new global framework that
would reconcile the needs for both innovation and access to medicines,
investigate new sustainable mechanisms for funding R&D for diseases and
conditions that have disproportionate impact on poor people living in
developing countries, and to consider new incentive systems, such as
prizes, that de-link R&D rewards from the prices of products. The
resolution supports these efforts.

Both access to medicines and the innovation of new treatments are
crucial public health goals. In developing countries, the price of
medicines is often a life-and-death matter. For example, generic
competition for the older first-generation AIDS drugs has reduced their
price in developing countries by more than 98 percent, which was
critical to the massive scale-up in AIDS treatment seen over the past
five years. However, most newer, second-generation treatments are under
patent and current treatment levels (including people receiving
treatment through PEPFAR funding) will not be sustainable unless much
cheaper generic versions become available. At the same time, new
approaches to medical R&D are needed in order to spur innovation to meet
priority health needs ignored within the existing global system to
support medical research and development.

We need your leadership and engagement to ensure the public health needs
of those in developing countries are protected and promoted. We urge you
to co-sponsor S. Res. 241 to help make the public health principles of
innovation and access the governing feature of U.S. trade policy.


Yours truly,

<List in Formation>
American Medical Student Association, Reston, VA
Center for Policy Alternatives on Trade and Health, San Francisco, CA
Essential Action, Washington, DC
Global Aids Alliance, Washington, DC
Health GAP, (Global Access Project), New York, NY
Knowledge Ecology International, Washington, DC
Oxfam America
Student Global AIDS Campaign


--
Sarah Rimmington
Attorney
Essential Action
Washington, DC
Office: (202) 387-8030 x34
Mobile: (202) 422-2687
Fax: (202) 234-5176
www.essentialaction.org