E-DRUG: Kenyan Parliament approves Medicines Bill
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[Kenya has followed South Africa in approving a bill which
allows it to use public health safeguards like compulsory
licensing. Well done! Who is next? Copied as fair use. NN]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010612/sc/health_drugs_dc_2.html
Kenya's Parliament Passes AIDS Drugs Bill
NAIROBI (Reuters) - The Kenyan parliament on Tuesday passed a
controversial bill opposed by the global pharmaceutical industry that
will allow the east African country to import and manufacture cheap
medicines.
MPs voted unanimously to approve the Industrial Properties Bill 2001,
effectively loosening the pharmaceutical giants' hold on much-prized
patent rights for a variety of medicines, including antiretroviral
AIDS
(news - web sites) drugs.
AIDS activists say the bill will allow more of Kenya's 2.2 million HIV
(news - web sites)-positive population access to the drugs, which have
helped reduce AIDS deaths in the West by 75 percent.
Kenya was the second African country to pass such a bill. The drugs
industry was badly bruised in South Africa in April when it abandoned
a
court case seeking to challenge a similar law.
``It's a big day, a very big day,'' Public Health Minister Sam Ongeri
told Reuters. ``Kenyans can now smile as they have access to cheaper
but
quality drugs.''
However, it will take some time before the cheaper medicines can be
imported to Kenya in bulk.
The bill still has to go for a third reading in Kenya's parliament
when
minor amendments can be discussed but the overall tone of the
legislation cannot be changed. It then has to receive presidential
assent.
Under the bill, Kenya will give pharmaceutical firms six months notice
if it wishes to license other companies to import or produce generic
drugs for which the multinationals hold patent rights.
The drugs industry fears the bill could cause a domino effect across
the
rest of the world's poorest continent, where 25.3 million people are
infected with the virus, cutting profits it says are essential for
research into new medicines.
But Ongeri said he thought it would be ``unwise'' if the drugs
industry
tried to challenge the bill in the Kenyan courts.
``It wouldn't fit in with the climate or mood of the nation,'' he
said.
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