E-drug: Access to Medicines in the Developing World
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Press Release
Access to Medicines in the Developing World:
Consumers call for action at White House meeting
In meeting with three Presidents in the White House yesterday,
European and US consumer groups called for immediate action to
improve access to medicines in the developing world.
US President Bill Clinton, European Commission President Romano
Prodi, and European Council President Jacques Chirac invited
representatives of the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD) to
meet them during the EU/US Summit in Washington on 18th
December.
Joan Claybrook of Public Citizen (US) and Felix Cohen of
Consumentenbond (Netherlands) represented TACD at the meeting.
Felix Cohen urged the leaders to do more to address the plight of
those infected with HIV/AIDs around the world, millions of whom
have no access to treatment that could improve the quality of their
lives, prolong survival and allow them to continue contributing to their
families and society.
The EU and US had a special responsibility to take action. Many of the
world's pharmaceutical companies were based there and the EU and
US had played a lead role in negotiating the WTO TRIPS agreement on
intellectual property, which would drive up the price of medicines in
the developing world.
The TRIPS agreement contains provisions on compulsory licensing that
could improve access to medicines, but only if pharmaceutical
companies and governments stop putting obstacles in the way. The
EU and US governments were asked to encourage and support
developing countries who wanted to use compulsory licensing to
ensure that essential medicines could be made in the cheapest
possible location.
EU and US governments should also do more, according to the TACD.
They should ask the World Health Organisation to study the effects of
trade rules on public health in the developing world and should try to
amend such rules, if any, as threatened public health. They should
also ask the WHO to develop a programme to give developing
countries access without charge to the results of publicly funded
medical research. (In the US, in particular, private companies are
sometimes given exclusive rights to use such results and may charge
for their use.)
To coincide with the EU/US Summit BEUC, the European Consumers
Organisation, is also highlighting the problem of access to medicines
in the developing world. BEUC has written to the Commissioners Lamy
(Trade), Nielson (Development) and Patten (External Relations) seeking
their support for the TACD demands. BEUC member organisations
around Europe, and members of Consumers International around the
world, will also be pressing their governments to support these
demands.
"The EU and US alone cannot solve the problem of access to
medicines in the developing world", said BEUC Director and Co-Chair
of the TACD, Jim Murray, "but these problems cannot be solved at all
without strong support from the EU and US. A neutral or "hands-off"
policy is not enough. The pharmaceutical industry, which pushed so
hard for trade rules to protect their patents, must also take
responsibility for the consequences of their actions. No amount of
"free donations" can absolve the industry from using or abusing those
trade rules to limit access to medicines in the developing world. As a
consumer organisation, we support a worldwide rule-based trading
system but not at the expense of access to medicines in the
developing world. Famine and lack of basic food is an all too frequent
occurrence; for millions of people world wide, lack of essential
medicines has similar tragic effects."
Jim Murray
Joanna Dober
Caroline Hayat
Bureau Europ�en des Unions de Consommateurs (BEUC)
The European Consumers' Organisation
Avenue de Tervueren 36, bte 4, B-1040 Bruxelles
T�l: +32-2-743.1590
Fax: +32-2-740.28.02
E-mail : consumers@beuc.org
Web: www.beuc.org
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