GENEVA: Prominent non-governmental organizations upbraided rich countries for failing to live up to their commitments in the World Trade Organization (WTO) to help people in poor countries gain access to affordable medicines.
The United States and much of the global pharmaceutical industry “have argued instead for the weakest possible solution,” said Ruth Mayne of the British-based humanitarian relief organization, Oxfam International.
The other groups that issued the communique were Medecins Sans Frontieres, the Third World Network, and Consumer Project Technology.
The statement revived the debate on health and trade, which in recent years has put developing countries and civil society groups at loggerheads with industrialized nations and the drug industry.
Mayne noted that 14,000 people a day die of avoidable infectious diseases, and she underlined that a large portion of those deaths could be prevented if affordable drugs were available.
The conflict over poor countries’ access to cheap medicines peaked a year ago, when 39 transnational pharmaceutical companies dropped a patent infringement lawsuit against the government of South Africa.
Compulsory licensing allows governments to authorize local companies to manufacture generic versions of patented drugs, and to import cheap drugs.
The Doha declaration instructed the WTO council on Trade-Related Intellectual Property Agreement (TRIPS) “to find an expeditious solution” by the end of the year to the problem of countries that face difficulties in resorting to compulsory licensing.
The four NGOs proposed that the WTO should allow countries to use one of the existing exceptions to patent rights to export medicines and health-related products to other countries.
The limited exceptions to patent rights are outlined in article 30 of the TRIPS agreement, which has already been invoked by an industrialized country, Canada, “to allow a generic drug manufacturer to export its product to other jurisdictions where patent protection was not in place,” said James Love, of the US-based Consumer Project on Technology.
An even “broader use of article 30 was proposed in the United States,” in response to last November’s anthrax crisis, “to allow generic companies to export medicines or other health care products that are needed to address global public health emergencies,” he added.
But the George W. Bush administration and the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, which represents drug giants such as Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, Bayer, Aventis, Astra Zeneca and others, propose that waivers be issued only in cases of disputes triggered by compulsory licensing.
But “a waiver would only be a temporary measure, would have to be reviewed annually which would deter governments and companies from using it, and would waste a unique political opportunity to get a permanent solution,” said Ellen t’Hoen, of the Paris-based Medecins Sans Frontieres.
Developing countries will submit to the TRIPS council at least two initiatives aimed at resolving the shortcomings of compulsory licensing.
The bloc of African nations is pushing for the adoption of several simultaneous provisions, which include the same exceptions as article 30.
Another group of developing countries, which includes Brazil, Bolivia, China, Cuba and Venezuela, suggests resolving the problem by more effectively employing the exceptions outlined in article 30.—Dawn/The InterPress News Services.