[Ip-health] Sign-on to support access to medicines in Ecuador

[peter maybarduk]

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Dear Colleagues,
On Monday I wrote you about Ecuador's plans to expand access to
medicines by issuing compulsory licenses, and about President
Correa's vision for intellectual property "as a mechanism for
development for the people" (see my post at the bottom of this email
for a reminder and an excerpt of President Correa's comments).
Compulsory licenses authorize generic competition with patented
medicines, reducing costs and enabling more people to access
treatment.  Discussions on a compulsory licensing administrative
framework are advancing in Quito.  This is a critical moment in the
discussion, and we would like to show President Correa he has the
support of the access to medicines movement.

Essential Action is collecting signatures in support of President
Correa's vision, and reiterating the benefits of TRIPS-compliant
compulsory licenses.  See our letter below.  If you would like to
sign on, please send your organization's name (or your name and
organizational affiliation, if any, if you would like to sign on as
an individual), your mailing address and email address to
<peter.maybarduk@essentialinformation.org>.  For organizations and
individuals able to arrive at a decision quickly, we would appreciate
your signature right away =96 by this Friday the 9th if possible.  The
outside deadline for sign-ons is Wednesday, October 21.  Please feel
free to send me any questions you may have.

Thank you,
Peter Maybarduk
Essential Action

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Economista Rafael Correa Delgado
Presidente de la Rep=FAblica

Dear President Correa,

We, organizations of civil society, treatment advocates, development
advocates, people living with HIV, and access to medicines movements
the world over, congratulate Ecuador on its courageous plans to grant
compulsory licenses for medical patents.

Over the last ten years, competition of generic medicines with
branded medicines has fueled a revolution in HIV/AIDS treatment.
Competition has reduced costs of first-line antiretroviral therapy by
over 98%, from $10,000 per person, per year to near $100 today.  As a
result, four million people worldwide now have access to life-saving
drugs.

But monopoly drug pricing problems in developing countries extend far
beyond first-line HIV/AIDS treatments. Many people living with HIV
and AIDS are graduating to second and third-line treatments, many of
which are patented and sold at high cost.  Heart medicines, cancer
medicines, medicines against opportunistic infections and more are
also often sold at prices far beyond peoples=92 ability to pay.  High
costs constrain the essential services public health programs could
otherwise provide.   Today, multinational pharmaceutical companies
are intensifying their global registration of patents.  We confront
the deadly prospect of monopolized drug markets.

Compulsory licensing is, has been, and will be an essential safeguard
of competition.   Each country that uses this safeguard =96 enshrined
in the World Trade Organizations' TRIPS Agreement =96makes it simpler
for the next.  As compulsory licenses open markets to competition,
they also help generate the necessary economies of scale to further
reduce costs, and incentivize the broader reach of generic medicines.
While advancing access to medicines imperatives, compulsory licensing
is compatible with ensuring reasonable compensation for patent
holders and supporting medical innovation.

The example of Brazil is telling. Since 2001, Brazil has provided
hundreds of thousands of people with HIV/AIDS treatment and saved
more than US$1 billion through a combined approach of national
production of medicines, imports of generics, negotiation and
compulsory licensing.

As so eloquently stated in the Political Constitution of Ecuador,
Article 363, in access to medicines, the interests of public health
prevail over those of mere profit.  Your recent remarks position
Ecuador to advance the politics and principle of access to medicines
for all, in Latin America and around the world.

We stand with you.  Please count on our support as you pursue your
vision of intellectual property as =93a mechanism for development for
the people.=94

Sincerely,

[the undersigned]

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From: peter maybarduk <peter.maybarduk@essentialinformation.org>
Date: October 5, 2009 1:40:51 PM GMT-05:00
Subject: Ecuador's compulsory licensing plans and alternative vision
for IP

In July of this year, Ecuador=92s President Rafael Correa articulated a
vision of intellectual property as =93a mechanism for development for
the people.=94  His speech before a live audience on the nationally
televised program "Enlace Ciudadano" ("Citizen Connection") announced
a new state policy of using compulsory licenses to improve access to
medicines.

I=92ve translated an excerpt below. The clip is available (in Spanish
and sign language) on YouTube, here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=3D9cnsOctJ0wc, as well as the homepage of the Ecuadorean Intellectual
Property Institute (IEPI, Ecuador=92s patent office), here: http://
www.iepi.gov.ec/.

Last week, President Correa announced plans to use compulsory
licenses to facilitate the domestic production of medicines.  Here is
the story in El Universo, courtesy of Judit Rius Sanjuan: http://
www.eluniverso.com/2009/09/26/1/1355/ecuador-eliminara-patentes-
medicamentos.html?p=3D1355&m=3D861).

Correa, an economist recently elected to a second term (with a simple
majority and a twenty-three point lead over his closest competitor),
has charged high-ranking officials in his administration to implement
the policy.

Nevertheless, we have heard reports of multinational pharmaceutical
companies organizing behind the scenes to disrupt the licensing
policy before it can take effect.  To realize President Correa=92s
vision, Ecuador needs the support of the global access to medicines
movement.

To show your support and find out how you can help, write:

Essential Action, peter.maybarduk@essentialinformation.org and

Health Action International Ecuador, teranj_aisec@cablemodem.com.ec

----------------

 From =93Enlace Ciudadano,=94 July 16, 2009:

"Therefore, the subject of intellectual property is tremendously
important.  What is our vision?  When something has been invented or
discovered, the more people that use it, the better.   For example, a
medicine.  We're talking about human rights.  Do you think it's
ethically sustainable that if a cure for cancer is invented, people
could continue to die because they don't have the resources to pay?
That because the medicine has a registered property right, and
because I, Laboratory X, invested in its development, you have to pay
me $2,000 for each pill?

This cannot be.  When making the [gestures to indicate a "single"]
pill costs far less.  And it's to save lives.    Especially in these
situations, we have to change our conception of property; the
traditional conception, the neoliberal conception.   Compa=F1eros, we
are discussing all of this.

There is, in our legislation, what they call compulsory licensing.
I, as President, can order that we issue a compulsory license for
Brand X, so they can copy this medicine and make generics, and the
people have access to this medicine, to health, to a cure for their
illness.  [Applause.]  And this is exactly what we are going to begin
to do, with respect to medicines, with respect to agrochemicals, with
respect to everything possible."

. . . [Correa addresses non-profit motives that also drive innovation
("vocation" and "dedication"), and cites universities as key centers
of research and innovation in the public interest.] . . .

"Intellectual property is a mechanism for development for the
people.  This is our vision of intellectual property.  It's not a
mechanism to enrich the pharmaceutical or agrochemical companies.
It's a mechanism for development for the people."



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