[Pharm-policy] Various Norway talking points

[James Love]

1.  The main talking points for big pharma at this meeting will be to
justify price discrimination, and to look for elimination or
modification of Article 6 of the TRIPS in the next round, regarding the
first sale doctrine for intellectual property.

2.  Another issue that is emerging is that the WTO and the WHO are
putting the issue of national price controls on drugs on the global
trade agenda, right before the Qatar meeting.  Big Pharma is trying to
get the WTO to reduce national authority on price controls, saying it
undermines the development of new drugs.  US trade officials have
traditionally pushed this in various bilaterial trade negotiations.

3.  Big Pharma will also push for more explicit global support for
linking northern AID to TRIPS plus protections in the area of compulsory
licensing,  buying from brand name companies in countries that do not
have patents and parallel trade.

4.  The EU mentioned a few weeks ago it would even discuss relaxing
antitrust laws with regards to pricing of drugs on concessionary terms.

5.  The various NGO and consumer groups will talk about the need to
embrace competition and competitive sources of drugs, particularly in
the developing countries, even before the expiration of patents, via
compulsory licensing.  There will be much discussion of the evidence
that competition from generics has been the driving force moving prices
down, and that this should be explicitly part of a sustainable policy
approach.  

6.  The consumer/public health NGOs will reject linkage of donor aid to
TRIPS plus.  

7.  CPT will definitely oppose any suggestion that pharmaceutical
company actions should be shielded from antitrust laws.

8.  NGOs will discuss the "poor pay more" record of pharmacuetical
pricing, both within and between contries, and the various
anticompetitive efforts to deter competition even after the expiration
of a patent.

9.  One specific thing we will talk about in the Norway meeting is the
issue of sharing rights in US government funded inventions, an issue
that will be discussed in May in Brussels in the TACD meeting with the
US and EU governments.  
http://www.cptech.org/ip/health/econ/CPTthompson03282001.html


-- 
James Love
Consumer Project on Technology
P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
http://www.cptech.org
love@cptech.org
1.202.387.8030 fax 1.202.234.5176