Patent fair use (4)
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I apologise for the number of messages but as the issue of generic
drugs is escalating the number of important news is growing and I
feel that AFRO-NETS may want to be kept informed and updated with
links.
For instance I felt that the report of the UN kindly reproduced by
Claudio and that by the Guardian revealed a current polarity in re-
ports: we need to get down to facts and brainstorm on all issues in-
cluding that of future research.
As a European citizen, I am shocked that a simple European Commis-
sioner (Sir Leon Brittan) had taken the secret initiative to intimi-
date back in 1998 a government (South Africa). Also the role played
by McKinsey (see earlier reprint of the Guardian on AIDS drug smug-
gling) is becoming alarming, as McKinsey does consult for the Euro-
pean Union commission. There are indeed "conflict of interest" safe-
guards within McKinsey (a global consultancy), but it is well-known
that the back-log of studies at the German office had so drastically
decreased in 1998 that Herbert Henzler, director of the McKinsey Ger-
man office, had to send his "on-the-beach" business analysts abroad,
including to the South African McKinsey office which is strictly
speaking a sub-office of McKinsey-London.
If the same McKinsey business analysts have consulted (a) for pharma-
ceuticals, (b) for the European Union and then (c) taken part in bro-
kering the deal for the Uganda, Senegal and Rwanda loans, there is an
obvious conflict of interest. There is no article on the McKinsey
web-site on AIDS nor TRIPS currently.
McKinsey and the European Union must come out with clear-cut words to
explain what has been their role in delaying the broad access to AIDS
drugs in Africa. If McKinsey doesn't want its reputation as a global
player to be reduced by this affair, it should:
(a) come up swiftly with offers for "pro bono" studies to repair the
harm it has done,
(b) hire HIV/AIDS sufferers from South Africa as business analysts
and place them on Western pharmaceutical studies so that they may
influence and lobby for what HIV/AIDS sufferes need.
Thus if someone knows the URL of a copy of the secret letter that the
European commissioner Sir Leon Brittan had sent in March 1998 to the
then South-African Vice-President Mbeki, I would greatly appreciate
it. If it is true that a secret decision of a public servant has in-
timidated South Africa, then the European Commission has blood on its
hand, and the European public will wake up soon realising what has
been done in its name. Democracy isn't a vain word: the public's got
to know.
Christian Labadie
mailto:CLabadie@t-online.de
---
AIDS: First international summit for generics
by Sylvain Coudret
Act Up-Paris -- http://www.actupp.org
21-Feb-2001
[Appeared on E-drug (in English) and E-med (in French)]
The first Summit for access to HIV/AIDS drugs, an initiative of Act
Up-Paris and ReMeD, will take place in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) be-
tween 3 May and 7 May 2001.
Today, a huge majority of the 36 million people living with HIV/AIDS
cannot access multitherapies because of the current prices set by the
pharmaceutical companies who own the patents on those drugs (up to
almost 10,000 euros per patient per year). Only a few thousand now
benefit from generic versions, or copies of those treatments. The
current emergency is to make this access available to all in the
southern countries.
This summit on generics is an unprecedented initiative of committed
pro-treatment access People With AIDS groups, working in more than
thirty countries, most of them from Africa. It will enable partici-
pants to study all perspectives of production and importation of ge-
neric drugs, or good quality copies, in order that action be under-
taken as soon as possible. It is actually essential that legal
clauses included in the WTO agreements could be used by southern
countries for PWAs and to defend public health stakes.
After four days of strategic brainstorming, local actors will invite
international financial backers and political representatives to take
concrete measures for this initiative to open a way to an effective
availability of generics in southern countries.
On 26 February 2001, the organisers of the summit will meet the press
in Paris, at the Bourse du Travail at 6, rue du Chateau d'Eau
(Paris), together with representatives of associations supporting the
initiative.
Press/media contacts:
Emmanuel M'Bai Koue, Germinal Pinalie
Tel: +33-1-4929-0404 / +33-6-0840-9202
mailto:germinal@samizdat.net
Sylvain Coudret
Planet Africa
Commission Nord/Sud
Act Up-Paris
BP287
75525 Paris cedex 11
Tel: +33-1-4929-4475
Fax: +33-1-4806-1674
mailto:planetafrica@asso.globenet.org
Source:
http://www.healthnet.org/programs/e-drug-hma/e-drug.200102/msg00080.html
French:
http://www.healthnet.org/programs/e-med-hma/e-med.200102/msg00022.html
----
Other recent related links:
* Crisis in the Australian PBS (conflict of interest, following the
appointment of committee of a former drug industry lobbyist in a fed-
eral position), 21-Feb-2001, E-drug
http://www.healthnet.org/programs/e-drug-hma/e-drug.200102/msg00082.html
* Generic quality (following question by Oxfam), 21-Feb-2001, E-drug
http://www.healthnet.org/programs/e-drug-hma/e-drug.200102/msg00083.html
To get Internet web-pages by e-mail:
http://www.bellanet.org/email.htm
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