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News
Stories Covering the Recent Decision by the World
Trade
Organization (WTO) to Allow Poor Nations to Import Generic
Drugs
to Fight AIDS and other Diseases
WTO seals deal on inexpensive
drugs
August 31, 2003
GENEVA: The World Trade Org-anisation (WTO) approved a deal on Saturday to let poorer nations import cheaper generic drugs to fight killer diseases such as AIDS and malaria after days of emotionally charged debate.
The deal plugs a gap in world trade law and allows poorer countries unable to manufacture medicines domestically to override international patents and import cheap generic drugs when they need to.
“The decision that you have just taken is an historic agreement for the WTO,” WTO director-general Supachai Panitchpakdi told member states.
The accord, given a final seal of approval by the WTO’s 146-member executive general council on Saturday, waives patents owned by multinational firms that are protected by trade rules.
“I find a special satisfaction in the fact that the decision will be of particular value to the smaller and poorer countries... in Africa and elsewhere,” Mr Supachai said.
“It will enable them to make full use of the flexibilities in the WTO intellectual property rules in order to deal with the diseases that ravage their peoples.”
An impassioned plea on Friday by African states, who said that thousands were dying as trade envoys bickered, got the talks back on track after a deal agreed on Thursday by the main negotiating body on medicines ran into last-minute problems.
“It’s especially good news for the people of Africa who so desperately need access to affordable medicines,” said Kenyan ambassador Amina Mohamed. “We have been waiting anxiously for this.”
The US and EU also applauded the deal, which allows a country that lacks capacity to produce medicines for itself to obtain them from abroad by making importing generics a right protected by the WTO.
The pact aims to balance the need for poor states to fight health problems with the demands that WTO members set aside patents only to import generic medicines “in good faith” and do not abuse the system for commercial gain.
It allays concerns of the United States, home to many drugs majors, that waiving patents could be abused for commercial gain by generic producers such as Brazil and India.
Steps will be taken to ensure medicines sold to poor countries do not turn up on rich country markets, and a number of richer developing countries — such as Mexico and South Korea — will agree to use the system only in dire health emergencies.
Existing world trade rules allow countries with their own drugs industry to waive patents and issue compulsory licences to generic manufacturers when they face health emergencies, but say nothing about states without their own drugs industry. —Reuters
(Source: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_31-8-2003_pg5_16)
Third World to win cheaper drugs after US drops opposition
29 August 2003
Third world countries were set last night finally to win the right
to get anti-Aids, malaria and other vital medicines cheaply.
After two years of disputes the World Trade Organisation was poised to rubber stamp a deal, previously rejected by the United States, ensuring that poorer nations can import affordable generic drugs.
The US and the European Union were however resisting pressure from the big pharmaceutical manufacturers, which were offering key concessions in exchange for the loosening of licensing restrictions.
Under existing WTO rules, countries facing public health crises are prevented from overriding patents on vital drugs and ordering copies from cheap generic suppliers unless they bought from domestic producers. But few developing countries have a domestic pharmaceutical industry.
Five countries representing all sides to the dispute - the United States, Brazil, India, Kenya and South Africa - hammered out the wording of an agreement in Geneva on Wednesday. Delegates to several countries held up a final vote yesterday to ask detailed questions, but none indicated a problem so big as to impede reaching an agreement ahead of the WTO's ministerial meeting in Mexico in two weeks.
Pharmaceutical companies have much to gain by promoting their own brands and blocking out generic imitations, which usually cost a fraction of the price. After months of floating different forms of wording, the US backtracked, giving only a general assurance that the liberalisation of drug licencing would not threaten the market dominance of brand name, drugs such as Viagra.
But some campaigners were angry last night. Kenyan activists accused Washington of bullying poor countries into accepting a raw deal.
"The United States basically caved in," said James Love, an intellectual property expert with the Washington-based Consumer Project on Technology.
Although welcoming the US climbdown, non-government organisations such as Mr Love's are far from happy with the final agreement, saying the wording creates a web of red tape for any developing country to cut through in order to obtain a so-called "compulsory licence" permitting the import of generic drugs. Among the diseases in most urgent need of widespread treatment at the cheapest possible price are AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.
One particularly harsh assessment came from Oxfam, which said: the deal "would be disastrous for poor people around the world. The text contains so much red tape and so many obstacles".
Mr Love said his main objection was that all licence applications would be handled directly by the WTO. He saw this as "a very dangerous form of mission creep" for the agency, which has been under fire for years from opponents of corporate globalisation for its lack of democratic accountability and susceptibility to lobbying pressure from multinational corporations.
He also objected to what he said was a differentiation in import rules between big-market countries such as the USA and smaller markets in the Third World. He accused the United States and European Union of introducing "blatantly protectionist" measures to minimise the number of their own generic imports from countries such as India and Brazil in ways that do not apply to smaller, less affluent countries.
WTO agrees on deal for cheap medicines for poor countries
Sunday, August 31, 2003 at 07:00 JST
GENEVA — The World Trade Organization on Friday night clinched a deal
to allow poor countries better access to cheaper medicines for fighting
deadly scourges such as AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.
"It's good news for Africa, and especially good news for the people of Africa who so desperately need access to affordable medicine," Kenya's ambassador Amina Chawahir Mohamed told reporters.
Ending days of wrangling, WTO countries achieved the breakthrough following an impassioned plea by African countries late Friday for members to set aside reservations based on national interests.
More than 2.1 million Africans have died from diseases such as AIDS since Dec 16 when a near deal first collapsed, Morocco's ambassador told the meeting on behalf of African countries.
Envoys of the 146-strong body had struggled to break the deadlock since last December when the United States, under pressure from its pharmaceutical industry, blocked an accord over concerns it could undermine patent protection.
African countries had shown "passion and patience" over trying to settle the problem, Canada's ambassador to the WTO, Sergio Marchi said, adding: "They helped the WTO find its heart and soul."
Brazilian Ambassador Luiz Felipe de Seixas Correa said that the African calls for a solution had been a decisive factor.
"I think all of us could not fail to be touched by that."
Despite an apparent near-accord earlier in the week, the proposed compromise ran into snags over questions of its interpretation when it faced final endorsement in the early hours of Friday.
But the WTO's ruling general council met early Saturday following consultations led by South Africa, India and Kenya to try to iron out lingering concerns.
"We believe that the mechanism will work, it can work and we intend to use it," said Faizel Ismail, South Africa's representative at the negotiations, to reporters.
The agreement will make it easier for poor countries to import cheaper generic copies of patented medicines under a so-called compulsory licensing system if they do not have the capacity to manufacture the drugs themselves.
Before now, under the WTO's Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement, production of a medicine under a compulsory licence had to be predominantly for the domestic market, effectively limiting the ability of countries without a pharmaceutical industry to import generics.
Hailing the deal as "historic," WTO Director-General Supachai Panitchpakdi said: "The final piece of the jigsaw has fallen into place, allowing poorer countries to make full use of the flexibilities in the WTO's intellectual property rules in order to deal with the diseases that ravage their people."
But aid agencies were not convinced.
Oxfam and Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said in a joint statement that the deal was "flawed" and "does not offer a workable solution."
"Unfortunately, it offers little comfort for poor patients. Global patent rules will continue to drive up the price of medicines."
Access to generic versions of antiretroviral AIDS drugs is a life-or-death issue for the estimated 30 million Africans suffering from the disease, according to U.N. figures — out of a total 42 million worldwide.
The clash between business and humanitarian interests has plagued global trade talks since the latest three-year round to tear down trade barriers was launched by ministers in Doha, Qatar, in November 2001. (Wire reports)
WTO seals drugs deal
August 31, 2003
Moved by impassioned speeches and shocking statistics about deaths in Africa, the World Trade Organisation put aside differences and conclude its long-delayed deal allowing poor nations to import cheap copies of medicines against AIDS and other killer diseases.
"This agreement has demonstrated that we at this organisation are highly capable of achieving something which is of real, profound significance on humanitarian ground," said WTO Director-General Supachai Panitchpakdi.
After days of haggling which saw the deal almost fall through, the WTO's 146 member countries approved the deal to waive some of their obligations under the trade body's agreement on intellectual property rights.
"This is good news for Africa. It is especially good news for the people of Africa who so desperately need access to affordable medicine," said Kenyan Ambassador Amina Chawahir Mohamed.
"We have been waiting very anxiously for this, and we will be ready to utilise it as soon as we can put the bureaucratic machinery in place."
At an emotional meeting on Friday evening, numerous African delegations had pleaded with the diplomats to stop niggling and just agree to the deal.
Since the collapse of talks a day earlier, another 8,480 people had died unnecessarily in Africa from HIV/AIDS and other diseases, they said in a joint statement.
"They showed that the poorest among us do make a difference in this organisation," said Canadian Ambassador Sergio Marchi after the decision. "They helped the WTO find its heart and soul."
South African ambassador Faizel Ismail, one of those who negotiated the final deal, said he believed it was "workable" and that his country plans to start using it to import desperately needed drugs at cheaper prices and also to put pressure on patent-holders to reduce the price of their drugs for poor nations.
But groups campaigning to give poor people better access to lifesaving drugs criticised the agreement as containing so much red tape and restrictions that governments will be unable to use to get sufficient supplies of cheap medicine.
"Today's deal was designed to offer comfort to the US and the Western pharmaceutical industry," said Ellen 't Hoen of the medical aid group Doctors Without Borders.
"Unfortunately it offers little comfort for poor patients. Global patent rules will continue to drive up the price of medicines."
Negotiators have been trying to settle the issue for almost two years, but it had been totally deadlocked since the United States refused to accept a deal last December.
The deadlock was broken when diplomats agreed to attach a statement to the text setting out the conditions under which the measure can be used.
US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said he was "very pleased" the negotiators had succeeded in "striking the right balance between addressing the needs of the poorest countries while ensuring intellectual property protections that foster the future development of lifesaving drugs".