E-DRUG: Oxfam: Rich countries betraying their obligations to help poor countries protect public health
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To access Oxfam's newly published briefing paper on access to medicines,
please visit:
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/issues/health/bp95_patents.htm
Press release (November 14, 2006):
Rich countries betraying their obligations to help poor countries
protect public health
Five years on, most poor people are yet to benefit from the Doha
Declaration
Poor people in developing countries are still being denied cheaper
life-saving medicines five years after world leaders signed a formal
trade declaration to put health before profits.
In a report published today marking the fifth anniversary of the "Doha
Declaration", "Patents vs. Patients: Five Years After the Doha
Declaration", international agency Oxfam says that rich countries are
taking little or no action towards their obligations and are in some
cases actually undermining the declaration.
The declaration says that developing countries must be able to use
public health safeguards written into the WTO's intellectual property
rules (called TRIPS) in order to access cheaper generic versions of
patented medicines. Generic competition is the most sustainable way to
keep the price of medicines down, says Oxfam.
"Rich countries have broken the spirit of the Doha Declaration," said
Oxfam's Make Trade Fair campaign head Celine Charveriat. "The
declaration said the right things but needed political action to work.
That hasn't happened. We've gone backwards. People are still suffering
or dying needlessly."
Since 2001 things have become worse for sick people in developing
countries:
* More than 4 million people were newly infected by HIV in 2005;
* Cancer - once considered a "burden of the rich" - is increasingly affecting people in developing countries, with the rate of disease due to double by 2020 and 60% of new cases occurring in the developing world;
* Diabetes has risen from 30 million to 230 million people in the past 20 years with most new cases now reported in poorer countries.
However, the World Health Organization says that 74% of AIDS medicines
are still under monopoly, 77% of Africans still have no access to AIDS
treatment, and 30% of the world's population still do not have regular
access to essential medicines.
There are many reasons for this but one of the most important is that
rich countries, particularly the US, are bullying developing countries
to impose stricter intellectual property rules in order to preserve
pharmaceutical monopolies. This is restricting generic competition and
keeping prices high.
"Global health statistics are grim but the US continues to negotiate
trade deals with even stricter rules that limit how a country can use
public health safeguards," said Charveriat." If implemented, these deals
will result in Colombia having to pay an additional $940 million per
year by 2020 to cover the increased cost of medicines, affecting nearly
6 million patients. Similarly in Peru, where the price of medicines
could increase by 100% in 10 years and 162% in 18 years.
Other rich countries, particularly those among the European Union, have
quietly consented to US actions. Pharmaceutical companies have gone even
further by directly challenging countries such as India and in
Philippines that have sought to use the safeguards.
In 2005, cancer patient groups in India used Indian intellectual
property law to stop a patent application by the Swiss company Novartis
for its anti-cancer drug, Glivec. This allowed Indian companies to
continue making generic versions at $2,700 a year, as opposed to
Novartis having a monopoly priced version for sale at $27,000 a year.
However Novartis recently appealed the court's decision in a direct
challenge to India's right to interpret the TRIPS Agreement to protect
public health. If Novartis is successful, it could jeopardize India's
generic export industry. India is the world's leading supplier of
inexpensive generic medicines to developing countries; 67% of developing
country drug imports come from India.
"Novartis has told Oxfam that there is no commercial market for Glivec
in India and that it is challenging India in order to align Indian
intellectual property law with TRIPS," Charveriat says. "However, India
is only trying to use the flexibilities rightfully available to it under
TRIPS and Novartis is seeking to block that right."
Meanwhile in the Philippines, the government has conducted tests and
issued a regulatory approval for a cheaper patented version of Norvasc,
a heart disease drug now under patent to the US company Pfizer. The
government is doing this to ensure that a cheaper patented version of
Norvasc that costs almost 90% less will be available immediately from
when the patent expires in June 2007.
Oxfam believes that the government's action is consistent with the TRIPS
Agreement and with the Philippines intellectual property law. However,
Pfizer is now suing the government. If Pfizer is successful, it will
severely limit the government's ability to access cheaper medicines and
assert its right to enforce TRIPS safeguards.
"Developing countries have a responsibility to use the public health
safeguards but when they try to do so they are put under huge pressure,"
Charveriat said.
In order to make the Doha Declaration work, Oxfam is calling for:
* The WTO to review the impact of the TRIPS Agreement to ensure that all members can protect public health.
* The US to stop pressuring countries to adopt stricter intellectual property rules, especially through its FTA negotiations;
* The EU to clarify that it will not push for TRIPS-plus measures within European Partnership Agreements, and that it gives developing
countries the policy space to freely use TRIPS flexibilities;
* Rich countries to give political and technical support to developing countries to use the safeguards under TRIPS to ensure access to affordable medicines;
* Political will on the part of developing countries to implement the public health safeguards;
* An end to lawsuits currently pursued by Novartis and Pfizer against developing countries.
"Rich countries must live up to their commitments and stop undermining
the Doha Declaration with their selfish actions," Charveriat said. "Now
more than ever we need a global trading system that puts health before
profit and makes medicines affordable for all."
Rohit Malpani
Oxfam
rmalpani@OxfamAmerica.org