E-drug: EC position of Essential Drugs and Compulsory licensing
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Dear E-drug Readers,
Once again greetings from Seattle!
The European Commission together with Hungary, Japan, Korea,
Switzerland and Turkey have included in a common position paper a
statement in support of the use of compulsory licensing for drugs
saying:
"to issue .... compulsory licensing for drugs appearing on the list
essential drugs of the World Health Organization".
Though well intended the proposed wording may actually limit the
scope of compulsory licensing. Of the 306 drugs on the WHO model
list only around 11 are patented drugs. Drugs that are too costly -
even if needed from a health point of view such as AIDS drugs - are
not included.
We have issued the following memo to the delegates here.
We also ask WHO to clarify the consequences of the wording
proposed by the EC and others.
Those of you who have contact with delegations at the WTO
ministerial please pass on this memo.
Ellen 't Hoen
Consultant MSF project Access to Essential Drugs)
e-mail: ethoen@hotmail.com
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MEMO