Shameful U.S. TRIPS Negotiations

[Guest guest]

The Urgency of Cheaper Drugs

New York Times Editorial: October 31, 2001

When the federal government wanted to stockpile the antibiotic Cipro as a

treatment for anthrax, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy

persuaded Bayer, the patent holder, to cut the price of the drug by

threatening to buy generic versions. Yet the Bush administration is

derailing efforts by poor countries ravaged by AIDS to facilitate their

efforts to do the same.

Members of the World Trade Organization are meeting in Doha, Qatar, on Nov.

9 to try to launch a new round of high-level talks on trade. The majority of

the world's nations, led by Brazil, want to pass a declaration stating that

nothing in the World Trade Organization rules governing patents would

prevent governments from safeguarding public health.

The nations pushing for change want to broaden the World Trade

Organization's rules on intellectual property to make it easier for

countries to manufacture or import low-cost drugs, especially the anti-AIDS

cocktail that costs more than $10,000 per year in the developed world. While

current world trade rules allow countries to break patents under certain

circumstances, among them public health emergencies, no country has done it

for AIDS medicines, in part because of pressure from Washington. A World

Trade Organization resolution clearly stating that public health comes first

would give these nations political support.

The United States and Switzerland, home to many multinational drug

companies, are blocking the declaration and proposing a weaker version,

unacceptable to most other countries. Their draft proposal puts less weight

on public health needs and does not fix some important barriers to cheaper

drugs, especially one that will prohibit countries that can make generics

from exporting them to nations that lack the capacity. The American

government, echoing drug makers, argues that patents are not a significant

bar to AIDS treatment.

It is true that other problems, including lack of trained people to deliver

the medicines, impede AIDS treatment. But for millions of AIDS sufferers,

patents that keep drug prices high are a major reason that AIDS treatment is

out of reach. Anthrax has killed a handful of Americans so far. AIDS has

killed 22 million worldwide. Americans today can surely understand the need

to give poor countries every possible weapon to fight back.

--

pdavis@...

Health GAP Coalition

ACT UP Philadelphia

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