E-drug: European socialist on TRIPs and Public Health
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Please find below an open letter sent by the socialist group of the
European Parliament to Pascal Lamy, EU Trade Commissioner,
regarding "TRIPs and Public Health: Paragraph 6 of the Doha
Declaration".
Seco Gerard
Access Campaign EU Liaison Officer
MSF, International Office - Brussels
+32.2.234.62.52
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OPEN LETTER TO COMMISSIONER PASCAL LAMY
Brussels, 11th April 2002
Mr. Pascal LAMY,
Member of the European Commission
200, rue de la Loi
1049 Brussels, Belgium
Dear Commissioner,
TRIPS and Public Health: Paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration
We are writing on behalf of the PES Group of the European
Parliament on the issue of TRIPS and public health which, as you
know, is an issue whose humanitarian importance has aroused
great public interest - and an issue to which our Group attaches a
high priority.
The agreement on "TRIPS and Public Health" reached at last year's
WTO Ministerial meeting was widely welcomed as a sign of a new
willingness within the WTO to respond to urgent public concern
over the wider social impact of WTO rules. In particular, the TRIPS
and Public Health declaration was an important recognition by the
WTO membership that, where a risk exists that WTO rules on
intellectual property may obstruct access to lifesaving medicines -
notably in developing countries - then overriding priority must be
given to public health.
The solution found in Doha, however, relied on clarifying the rights
of WTO members to issue compulsory licenses for the production of
life-saving medicines. It did not address the special problems of
countries without the domestic manufacturing capacity to produce
the needed medicines, who must therefore rely on imported
medicines (henceforth "import-dependent countries").
The PES Group therefore welcomes the paper recently submitted by
the Commission to the WTO, proposing ways of tackling these
problems. Noting that the Commission is still reflecting on a number
of options, we take this opportunity to offer some comments on
behalf of the PES Group.
We believe that the guiding principle to be adopted in dealing with
the situation of import-dependent countries must be that their
populations must enjoy the same guarantees of access to medicines
as the Doha declaration provides to all other WTO members. We
have considered carefully the pharmaceutical industry's fears of
abuse, and we agree that safeguards against abuse will be
necessary, but it is essential that the solution to the problem should
not be more restrictive than the Doha TRIPS and Public Health
declaration itself, and that the safeguards should not be so onerous
as to frustrate the objective of "supporting WTO members' right to
protect public health and, in particular, to promote access to
medicines for all".
We therefore oppose the idea that any solution to the problems of
access to medicines in import dependent countries should be
restricted only to LDC's, to "poor countries" or to "small
economies". We note that the key paragraphs 4 and 5 of the Doha
Declaration contain no restrictive references to small economies,
LDCs or even developing countries, while the preambular language
of Paragraph 1 includes all developing and least developed
countries.
We equally reject any suggestion that a solution should be
restricted to specific diseases, such as malaria and AIDS, and insist
that the principles set out in paragraphs 5 b) and 5 c) of the Doha
declaration, giving each WTO member "the freedom to determine
the grounds on which compulsory licenses are granted", and "the
right to determine what constitutes a national emergency or other
circumstances of extreme urgency" should be honoured in any
solution to the problems of import-dependent countries
We believe that the surest safeguard against abuse is to require a
transparent procedure whenever a compulsory license is issued.
We also recognise that the operation of any agreement must be
carefully monitored, and a commitment made to address any
problems of abuse which may come to light, if necessary by a
revision of the agreement.
Turning now to the technical options set out in the concept paper,
we are persuaded that a declaration clarifying the interpretation of
Article 30 of the TRIPS agreement, in line with option 2) in
Paragraph 16 of the paper, offers the simplest and most direct
solution to the problems of import-dependent countries. This
solution allows the decision on compulsory licensing to be made in
the country of consumption, in accordance with the logic of
Paragraph 5(b) and (c) of the Doha Declaration. We also attach
importance to finding an early solution - and as the concept paper
notes, an Article 30 solution can, if agreement is reached within the
WTO, be implemented more expeditiously than the alternative
Article 31 solution.
We consider both the moratorium and waiver options to be less
satisfactory. A moratorium, which can be ended at any point, will
add to uncertainty and inhibit generic production for export. A
waiver procedure may have a role to play but should not be seen as
a substitute for a long-term solution through a clarification of Article
30 of the TRIPS agreement.
We greatly welcome the concept paper's indication of the
Commission's readiness to discuss production for export to
countries that do not provide pharmaceutical patents. We hope
that future papers will address this problem, and also the question
of export to countries not yet members of the WTO, and therefore
not party to TRIPS, such as Afghanistan. We also welcome the
commitment made in Doha to re-inforce technology transfer and
look forward to seeing the Commission's proposals in that regard.
Finally, we would like to emphasise the importance our Group
attaches to complementary measures to tackle public health crises
in the developing countries, including public financing of drug
purchase, support for R & D into Third World diseases,
development of health infrastructure and promotion of public health
information and education. We urge the Commission to pursue
these objectives with the urgency they merit.
We would welcome your views on the points we have raised, and
would be happy to meet either you or the appropriate DG Trade
official for a further discussion.
Yours sincerely,
Max van den BERG Eryl McNALLY
PES Group Vice-President, PES Group Coordinator,
Foreign Affairs and Intern Trade ITRE Committee
Erika MANN
PES Group Shadow Rapporteur, WTO
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