[Ip-health] New Times (Kigali): Country to override copyrights on ARVs [22 July 2007]

[Richard Elliott]

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Country to Override Copyrights on ARVs

New Times (Kigali)

NEWS

22 July 2007

Posted to the web 23 July 2007

By Innocent Gahigana & Agencies

Kigali



Rwanda will become the first government to use global trade rules to
override pharmaceutical patents and import generic drugs. The country
expects to buy 260,000 packs during the next two years of TriAvir, a
fixed-dose combination of the widely used anti-AIDS drugs lamivudine,
zidovudine and nevirapine.The generic product is manufactured in Canada by
Apotex.



World Trade Organisation (WTO) said in a statement last week that the
submission was made last Tuesday by the Treatment and Research AIDS Centre
(TRAC).



The notification, according to the release, helps the country to undertake
2005 WTO agreement of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and Public
Health, which prescribes the importation and exportation of pharmaceutical
product to the markets of various countries.



"Rwanda has so far declared to WTO her intention to import during the next
two years 260,000 packs of HIV/Aids drugs manufactured by Apotex Inc in
Canada" says the release.



Under WTO rules, countries can issue compulsory licenses to disregard paten=
t
rights, but only after negotiating with the patent owners and paying them
adequate compensation. An agreement in 2003 allowed poorer countries to
import the drugs from abroad if they cannot produce the medicines
themselves.



"Because it is not possible to predict with certainty the extent of the
country's public health needs, we reserve the right to modify the foregoing
estimate as necessary or appropriate," Rwanda said in a letter released
Friday by the WTO. Combivir, made by GlaxoSmithKline of Britain, contains
lamivudine and zidovudine. Nevirapine is a generic version of Viramune, mad=
e
by Boehringer Ingelheim of Germany.



The international aid group Oxfam says that the patent-busting procedure is
almost never used because developing countries face pressure from wealthy
governments acting on behalf of their drug companies.

In a report last year Oxfam said that 74 percent of Aids medicines were
under monopoly, and that 77 percent of Africans lacked any access to Aids
treatment. "Rwanda is making a bold move," C=E9line Charveriat of Oxfam, sa=
id.
"This provision was set up to ensure poor countries get access to affordabl=
e
medicines."Brazil and Thailand have recently issued compulsory licenses to
develop cheap generic versions of U.S. AIDS drugs, among other medicines.



Many Aids patients have developed resistance to older anti-retrovirals and
now need more expensive, second-line drugs.



The development follows the 2001 Doha Ministerial Declaration, which in
helped revise the then hurdles within TRIPS agreement where countries were
only allowed to export 49 percent of such production.



WTO member states have to implement the 2005 decision into their national
law in order to use it, and separately, they have to accept it in order for
it to come into force.



_________________________________

Richard Elliott

Deputy Director

Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network

+1 (416) 595-1666 ext. 229



Directeur adjoint

R=E9seau juridique canadien VIH/sida

+1 (416) 595-1666 poste 229



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