[Ip-health] IPS: Global Campaign Vows to Fight MNC Drug Monopoly

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

http://www.ipsnews.net/print.asp?idnews=3D40208


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HEALTH:
Global Campaign Vows to Fight MNC Drug Monopoly

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Nov 26 (IPS) - Public health and HIV/AIDS activists from the
developing world are seeking to break the monopoly over drugs held by
pharmaceutical giants through a new global campaign designed to
influence international debate over the issue.
Formulated at the end of a three-day meeting, last week, which brought
some 200 participants from 20 countries to the Thai capital, the
campaign seeks =91=92a new way out of the current patent system; one that
will encourage innovation of new drugs and access for all,=92=92 says
Kannikar Kijtiwatchakul, an organiser of the International Conference
on Compulsory Licensing: Innovation and Access for All. =91=92What we have
now is innovation controlled by the pharmaceutical industry that lets
them have a monopoly on drugs.=92=92

The conference participants -- who came from countries such as Brazil,
India, Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Cambodia, the United States and
hosts Thailand -- have a meeting at the World Health Organisation
(WHO) in January 2008 as the first target of the new campaign.

At that meeting the Geneva-based health agency=92s executive board may
receive a draft of a plan to find a compromise between the demands of
big pharma, which produces patent-brand drugs, and the world=92s poor,
who have little or no access to the available life-saving medication
due to high prices.

The proposed plan is being drafted by the WHO=92s Intergovernmental
Working Group on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property
(IGWG), which held a second round of discussions in early November.
=91=92Our campaign wants to add to the IGWG=92s work, because we want to ge=
t
our views heard at the January meeting,=92=92 Kannikar told IPS.

=91=92At the heart of the plan is finding an optimal way to boost research
and development of affordable healthcare products so people,
particularly in the developing countries, can receive treatment for
diseases, with an emphasis on neglected conditions including
tuberculosis, malaria and HIV/AIDS,=92=92 states a background note by
Intellectual Property Watch, a Geneva-based on-line publication,
distributed at the conference.

Papers presented at the conference justified the need for such a
shift, given that the pharmaceutical multi-national corporations
(MNCs) have contributed marginally towards developing new drugs to
help the world=92s poor. =91=92Only 10 percent of the total global
investment in pharmaceutical research was directed towards neglected
diseases affecting 90 percent of the world=92s population,=92=92 noted
Jakkrit Kuanpoth, from the law faculty of the University of Wollongong
in Sydney, Australia.

As revealing were the numbers presented in a paper by Dr. Mira Shiva,
from the non-governmental Health Action International. Shiva said that
between 1975 and 2004, there were 1,556 new active ingredients for
drugs developed by the pharma giants but only 18 were for tropical
diseases.

=91=92The drug companies don=92t do some of the innovation that is most
important to developing countries with respect to neglected tropical
diseases,=92=92 Brook Baker, professor of law at Northeastern University,
in Boston, in the U.S., told IPS. =91=92They put their research where they
make the most money, from rich people in rich countries. That is where
they earn over 90 percent of their research and development dollars.=92=92

=91=92There should be a new innovation reward system. Developing countries
can and should pay something for innovation, but they should only be
asked to pay for innovation that is most appropriate for themselves,=92=92
he added.

The activists are bracing for a counter campaign from the
pharmaceutical industry, which presides over an estimated 650 billion
US dollar global market, of which all of southern Asia and south-east
Asia account for only a 1.3 percent share.

Events in Thailand reflect this challenge, since the South-east Asian
country has emerged as a leader in the developing world to take
advantage of global trading rules to secure cheaper, generic drugs for
public health emergencies such as HIV/AIDS.

Over the past year, Bangkok has used provisions available under the
trade related intellectual property rights (TRIPS) to issue compulsory
licences (CL) to break the patents for three drugs, two to prolong the
life of people with HIV and a blood-thinner for heart patients. The
right for developing countries to grant CLs or pursue parallel imports
of generic drugs were approved by at a World Trade Organisation (WTO)
ministerial meeting in Doha, in 2001.

It has consequently enabled some 10,000 Thais living with HIV who need
second-line anti-retroviral (ARVs) drug to live in hope of receiving
affordable medication. Currently, an estimated 140,000 Thais receive
the first-line of ARVs. The country is one that has been among the
worst hit since the pandemic began in the region, with over 600,000
infected with HIV at present and some 300,000 having died due to AIDS
over past two decades.

But as full-page advertisments that appeared in Thai and English-
language newspapers on Friday made clear, the powerful pharmaceutical
industry has other interests at heart. =91=92New drug discoveries help
doctors save lives=92=92 announced one advertisement to justify why big
pharma should continue to enjoy its monopoly in the drugs market.

The advertisement placed by the pro-pharma lobby is the latest in a
string of measures aimed at forcing Thailand to give up its right to
issue CLs. The U.S. pharma MNC Abbott Laboratories has also struck
back by withdrawing seven new drugs it had introduced into the market,
including a second-line ARV that can be easily stored in tropical
climates.

Even the U.S. government has retaliated against Bangkok, revealing
Washington=92s interest in protecting its pharmaceutical industry. The
Office of the United States Trade Representative has placed Thailand
on the =91Priority Watch List=92 for intellectual property violations and
also terminated duty free trade privileges that this country enjoyed.

=91=92There is absolute double standards being applied here by the U.S.
This is complete hypocrisy because there is no fuss made when
compulsory licenses are issued in the U.S.,=92=92 Robert Weissman,
director of Essential Action, a Washington D.C.-based corporate
accountability organisation, told IPS. =91=92The U.S. government has an
automatic right to use any patent without any prior negotiations.
There are many different ways in which we do compulsory licensing.=92=92

=91=92It is very important that a country=92s behaviour be judged according
to international law,=92=92 adds Dr. William Aldis, coordinator for health
policy and research at the WHO=92s South-east Asia regional office,
located in New Delhi. =91=92Thailand=92s is within the provisions of TRIPS.
It is not violating any laws.

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Thiru Balasubramaniam
Geneva Representative
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
thiru@keionline.org


Tel: +41 22 791 6727
Mobile: +41 76 508 0997