E-drug: More from Seattle
---------------------------------------------
[copied as fair use. HH]
NEWS
Poor Nations Given Hope on AIDS Drugs / New policy would lower
prices. Sabin Russell, Chronicle Staff Writer
12/03/1999
The San Francisco Chronicle
FINAL
Page A20
Sensing a major shift in U.S. trade policy, supporters of the effort to
bring AIDS drugs cheaply to poor countries hit hard by the epidemic
are exultant over remarks by President Clinton that appear to embrace
their cause.
In a speech Wednesday to World Trade Organization ministers at their
protest-racked conference in Seattle, Clinton announced that the
United States will seek "flexibility" in the enforcement of drug patent
laws when countries face a public health crisis.
"The United States will henceforward implement its health care and
trade policies in a manner that ensures that people in the poorest
countries won't have to go without medicine they so desperately
need," the president told the ministers.
In that seemingly simple statement lies a dramatic change in the U.S.
stance toward drug company patent protection. As late as May, U.S.
Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky had argued before the
World Health Organization that administration policy was to seek
stronger protections for American drug patents than current WTO
rules allow.
"For us, it's incredible. We are really pleased. All of the activism has
paid off," said Daniel Berman, director of the Access to Essential
Medicines Project of the French medical group Doctors Without
Borders .
The organization, which this year won the Nobel Peace Prize, has
played a leading role in bringing to global attention the issue of
increased access to drug treatment regimens.
The new policy, as explained in a White House press briefing, requires
that American trade negotiators consult with the Department of Health
and Human Services when patent issues conflict with a trading
partner's public health concerns.
In cases where public health is at risk, the U.S. policy would no longer
challenge the use of two tools -- permitted under WTO rules -- that
activists say can help make Western medicines cheaper for
impoverished countries.
By one approach, a country can use "compulsory licensing" to force a
drug company to license its patent to a local manufacturer. The
second method, "parallel importing," allows a country to shop the
world market for the lowest drug prices rather than be forced to
accept those set by the companies that developed the drug.
"The immediate effect of this is that poor countries can at least try to
use compulsory licensing and parallel importing and not fear retribution
from the U.S.," Berman said.
Doctors Without Borders lists 42 nations where the United States has
lodged drug patent complaints. Berman said the organization will
continue to monitor those disputes to determine how the government
backs up Clinton's words with action.
On Wednesday, Barshefsky and Health and Human Services Secretary
Donna Shalala announced jointly that the United States was taking
South Africa off its "Watch List," a diplomatic way of declaring that
the country is no longer in the doghouse for policies challenging drug
patents.
The basis for the new policy was laid this summer, when Vice
President Al Gore was badgered at campaign stops by protesters who
accused him of placing drug company interests ahead of the needs of
AIDS patients in Africa, where two-thirds of the 33.6 million people
infected with the AIDS virus reside.
In September, the Clinton administration lifted a threat of trade
sanctions against South Africa, and pharmaceutical companies
suspended a lawsuit challenging a law that would have permitted
compulsory licensing of life-saving drugs. This week's action by the
president appears to broaden that policy to all developing nations, and
it is not restricted to medications for AIDS.
The same rules that could cut prices for AIDS drugs might also bring
down prices for antibiotics that fight tuberculosis, or anti- fungal drugs
that treat a variety of life-threatening infections.
"This is an affirmation that the special policy for South Africa would
be general policy throughout the world," said Jamie Love, director of
the Consumer Project on Technology, a Ralph Nader-led organization
that first promoted the idea of using compulsory licensing for AIDS
drugs.
Love said he has some doubts about how well the administration will
follow through on its policy. He noted that only last month,
Washington was pressuring the legislature in the Dominican Republic
not to pass a law permitting compulsory licensing.
Another crucial issue for those seeking broader access to AIDS drugs
will be to win a ruling by the WTO ensuring that poor countries that
cannot afford to make their own medicines will be able to import from
other nations that produce them cheaply under compulsory licenses.
Such a step will be fiercely resisted by international pharmaceutical
companies.
Mark Grayson, a spokesman for the Pharmaceutical Research and
Manufacturers of America, said before the conference that WTO rules
forbid imports of drugs produced under compulsory licenses. "If AIDS
drugs get compulsory licensed around the world, it will dampen
research," he said
--
Send mail for the `E-Drug' conference to `e-drug@usa.healthnet.org'.
Mail administrative requests to `majordomo@usa.healthnet.org'.
For additional assistance, send mail to: `owner-e-drug@usa.healthnet.org'.