E-DRUG: EU criticizes USA TRIPS+ drive
--------------------------------------
[The USA has been criticized for some time by NGOs for endangering access to medicines by demanding stricter intellectual property protection in bilateral and regional "free trade" agreements than is required under TRIPS. See the excellent MSF paper on this available from http://www.accessmed-msf.org/ftaa.shtm
The TRIPS+ strategy is now also being attacked by the EU. Copied from the TRALAC website: www.tralac.org. WB]
Dispute of patented AIDS drugs accelerates
Europe has accused the United States of endangering a vital pact to provide cheap AIDS drugs to developing nations by its drive to conclude bilateral trade pacts with those countries. Speaking in Bangkok, Thailand at the 15th International Aids Conference, the head of the European Union's delegation called on the US to adhere to an agreement reached through the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2001 rather than pursue independent deals with developing nations.
Speaking on Tuesday, French Development Minister Xavier Darcos who was speaking on behalf of French President Jacques Chirac indirectly criticised the US for bilateral agreements with developing countries which provide protection for US pharmaceutical products. Pressuring developing countries, which are ravaged by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, to abandon measures to bypass international patent obligations and so allow them to buy cheap generic AIDS drugs would be equivalent to �blackmail� according to Chirac. The speech was warmly received by delegates.
The French do not appear to be alone in this view, according to Lieve Fransen, who is the head of human and social development in the European Commission's department of development policy and sectorial issues. "The message by Chirac represented very much the message from Europe in general," she said in an interview on Wednesday. "There is a danger that the US would go into major bilateral trade agreements that don't follow the agreements that we have all made in Doha," she added.
In 2001 a declaration came out of the WTO Ministerial Meeting which was intended to circumvent the patent provisions for anti-HIV drugs which were helping to maintain the unaffordable prices antiretroviral drugs. The costs for antretroiviral drugs have since decreased from a whopping $10 000 or more a year to a dollar a day or less.
One of the opponents to this move was "Big Pharma" who described generic manufacturers as �counterfeiters� who sapped the money needed to conduct research into new drugs.
Source: Finance24
--
To send a message to E-Drug, write to: e-drug@healthnet.org
To subscribe or unsubscribe, write to: majordomo@healthnet.org
in the body of the message type: subscribe e-drug OR unsubscribe e-drug
To contact a person, send a message to: e-drug-help@healthnet.org
Information and archives: http://www.essentialdrugs.org/edrug