[Ip-health] Pharmalot: Counterfeit Trade Deal May Hurt Generics: Activists

[Sarah Rimmington]

http://www.pharmalot.com/2008/09/counterfeit-trade-deal-may-hurt-generics-a=
ctivists/

Counterfeit Trade Deal May Hurt Generics: Activists
By Ed Silverman // September 17th, 2008 // 7:20 am

top-secret1More than 100 advocacy groups from around the world are
asking officials from countries negotiating the Anti-Counterfeiting
Trade Agreement to immediately publish the draft text of the document.
The concern is that undisclosed provisions will undermine access to
low-cost generics, among other things, such as require Internet service
providers to monitor all consumer Internet communications.

=93The lack of transparency in negotiations of an agreement that will
affect the fundamental rights of citizens of the world is fundamentally
undemocratic,=94 the groups wrote in their letter. =93It is made worse by
the public perception that lobbyists from the music, film, software,
video games, luxury goods and pharmaceutical industries have had ready
access to the ACTA text and pre-text discussion documents through
long-standing communication channels.=94

In explaining such concerns, Robert Weissman of Essential Action, cites
PhRMA=92s recommendations last March to the US Trade Representative
concerning the ACTA:

=93To address the supply of bulk chemicals and other materials used to
produce and market counterfeit medical products, ACTA should require
members to recognize as an administrative and criminal offense the
manufacture, transport, distribution, importation and exportation of any
equipment, materials, components or documentation used in the production
or distribution of counterfeit medical products, consistent with the WHO
guidelines specified above.=94

=93If there is a system that imposes liability on an active pharmaceutical
ingredient maker if they sell to a =91counterfeiter,=92 then there is going
to be a major burden on the API maker to verify the validity of the
manufacturers to whom they sell. You=92re definitely in the clear if
you=92re an API maker in China and you sell to Pfizer the ingredients to
make Viagra. But are you going to track down the generic maker in
Ecuador and validate their operations?=94

He also maintains that the pharmaceutical industry is trying to use ACTA
as a way to prevent parallel
trade/reimportation, and notes PhRMA=92s submission to the US Trade Rep
also says: =93ACTA members should also be required to prohibit the
distribution of medical products diverted from legitimate distribution
channels and such distribution of diverted products should be treated as
a counterfeiting
offense.=94

The countries negotiating ACTA include the US, the European Union,
Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Mexico, Australia and New
Zealand. And the groups seeking disclosure of the text include Consumers
Union, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Essential Action, IP Justice,
Knowledge Ecology
International, Public Knowledge, Global Trade Watch, US Public Interest
Research Group, IP Left (Korea), Australian Digital Alliance, The
Canadian Library Association, Consumers Union of Japan, National
Consumer Council (UK) and Doctors without Borders.

--
Sarah Rimmington
Attorney
Essential Action, Access to Medicines Project
Washington, DC
Tel: (202) 387-8030
Cell: (202) 422-2687
www.essentialaction.org/access/