E-DRUG: European Parliamentarians welcome Brasil's decision on efavirenz CL
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EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT PRESS RELEASE
By Francis Wurtz, President of the GUE/NGL Group and Vittorio Agnoletto,
rapporteur for the GUE/NGL on access to medication
THE GUE/NGL GROUP WELCOMES THE DECISION BY BRAZIL TO ALLOW THE PRODUCTION OF AN ANTI-AIDS DRUG
Brussels, 07/05/07,
The government of President Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva decided, on Friday
4 May last, to break the negotiations on intellectual property rights
called for by the company Merck, Sharp and Dohme, - one of the world's
three largest pharmaceutical multinationals -, and to allow the production
and sales under obligatory licence of a generic version of the Efavirenz
drug, which is essential for the survival of the 200,000 Brazilian men and
women suffering from AIDS, 75,000 of whom take this medication.
The parliamentary group of the European United Left - Nordic Green Left
(GUE/NGL) is delighted with this decision by the Brazilian President and
his Health Minister. By adopting this obligatory licence, the progressive
Brazilian government shows that it is making the public health of its
citizens its priority in relation to the exorbitant rights demanded by the
pharmaceutical laboratories, which profit from WTO provisions to make
shameless profits.
Considering that over 20,000 people die each day in the world as a result
of AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, it is urgent that other governments, in
particular the governments of developing countries, could, by following
the example of Brazil, free themselves from this unacceptable and abusive
use of intellectual property rights.
The GUE/NGL group asks the Commission and the Council of Ministers of the
European Union to clearly express their support for the Brazilian
government's decision and that they encourage other governments to do
likewise. It recalls that it has also repeatedly requested that the WTO's
TRIPS agreement is amended in depth, in order to facilitate the effective
access by all countries to the medicines necessary to fight epidemics so
as to guarantee the health of their populations.
Alexandra Heumber
EU Advocacy Liaison Officer
Médecins Sans Frontières
Access to Essential Medicines Campaign
Rue Dupré, 94. 1090 Brussels
++32 (0) 2 474 75 09 (Dir off)
++ 32 (0) 479 514 900 (Mob)
++ 32 (0) 2 474 75 75 (Fax)
Alexandra HEUMBER <Alexandra.HEUMBER@brussels.msf.org>