E-drug: MSF, HAI, CPT Press statement Seattle
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Press Release
Major U.S. Policy Change Opens Door for Poor Countries To Produce
Affordable Drugs
Seattle, USA, December 2, 1999  M�decins Sans
Fronti�res, Health Action International and the Consumer Project on
Technology today welcomed President Clinton�s World Trade
Organization (WTO) announcement that the United States government
would change U.S. trade policy to support greater access to lifesaving
medicines. The three public health groups also hailed the U.S.
President�s speech for raising health as a critical issue for the agenda
of the WTO talks and hoped that other nations would also ensure that
intellectual property rights do not negatively impact public health.
The groups urged President Clinton to back up his words with
concrete actions by removing current trade pressures against poor
countries on health care related disputes. The health advocates also
urged the WTO Member States to create a Standing Working Group
on Access to Medicines to ensure that the WTO rules do not impede
access to lifesaving medicines.
In his speech to WTO ministers, President Clinton said �...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 United
States Trade Representative (USTR) Charlene Barshefsky and Health
and Human Services Secretary Donna E. Shalala also announced a
new co-operative arrangement whereby the USTR promised that
public health officials would assess the health ramifications of the
U.S. intellectual property rights policy. This change in U.S. policy
opens the door to effective use of compulsory licensing by national
governments for making essential medicines available to their citizens.
 OVER 
�On a daily basis, our doctors in developing countries witness people
dying from the lack of access to affordable lifesaving medicines,� said
Daniel Berman, coordinator of the M�decins Sans Fronti�res (MSF)
Access to Essential Medicines Campaign. �Although this U.S. policy
change is an important first step, it is important that health concerns
become more broadly integrated into the WTO rules.�
The three groups specifically called for the creation of a WTO
Standing Working Group on Access to Medicines to review issues
concerning intellectual property rules as they relate to access to
medicines. This Working Group would also help developing countries
use the existing provisions within the Agreement on Trade-Related
Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) that allow for the
protection of health.
Ralph Nader�s Consumer Project on Technology (CPT) also expressed
optimism that public health considerations would be given more
prominence, but asked President Clinton to follow his words with
action, and stop U.S. trade pressures against not only South Africa,
but Thailand, India, the Dominican Republic, the Philippines, and
dozens of other poor countries.
�The U.S. government is constantly bullying countries that attempt to
pass laws to make medicines more affordable,� said James Love,
director of CPT. �If Clinton is to be takenseriously, we�ll have to see
something concrete. For example, the U.S. could signal to Thailand
that it can proceed with compulsory licenses for ddI, an important HIV
drug, that was invented by the U.S. government, but sold at high
prices by Bristol-Myers Squibb.�
�This represents an opening for poor countries to step forward and
fully utilize provisions in the TRIPS Agreement that allow them to
make affordable lifesaving medicines available to their citizens,� said
Zafar Mirza, M.D., head of the Health Action International (HAI)
delegation at the WTO meeting.
For more information, contact Kris Torgeson of MSF at (917)
405-3118, James
Love of CPT at (425) 985-3999, and Zafar Mirza of HAI at (917)
940-0840.
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