E-DRUG: Trade agreement may restrict essential drugs in Central America
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Trade agreement may restrict supply of essential drugs in Central America, experts say
BMJ 2005;331:310 (6 August),
News extra
[copied as fair use]
John Zarocostas
Health and development advocacy groups fear that stringent intellectual
property provisions imposed by the United States in a new free trade pact
will trigger higher prices of drugs and will restrict access to cheap
essential generic drugs, including antiretrovirals, in poor Central
American nations.
The Central American free trade agreement between and the US and Costa
Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and
Nicaragua was approved by the US House of Representatives on 27 July by a
vote of 217 to 215.
The pact has many aspects that are problematic and will raise drug prices
and strengthen the monopoly position of big brand drug companies in these
poor nations, said Jamie Love, director of the Consumer Project for
Technology, which is based in Washington, DC.
Mr Love said the stringent intellectual property provisions in the accord
"create a new monopoly on data used to register new products."
The charity Médecins Sans Frontières, in a submission to the US House of
Representatives, concluded that the pact had many troubling provisions
concerning intellectual property and that it will "threaten to hamper
generic competition-the only reliable mechanism for ensuring lower drug
prices-and therefore restrict access to affordable medicines in the Central
American region."
Mr Love said the US government refused requests to fix the problems in the
pact, but he added that he still believes there may be some space for
manoeuvre to ease some of these terms.
"It can be done if the US wants to," he said.
In a similar vein, Oxfam International said that the agreement "imposes
strict new rules that extend the monopoly held by brand-name
pharmaceuticals, which will limit generic competition and reduce access to
affordable medicines in the future."
Senior envoys from Central American countries admit in private that the
terms in the new pact on intellectual property are more strict than the
provisions of the World Trade Organization's agreement on trade related
aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS).
"The terms are certainly TRIPS plus," said a World Trade Organization
ambassador.
However, officials of the Bush administration maintain that the fears
expressed about the pact are unfounded.
"We think they're wrong. We believe the provisions in the free trade
agreement will provide wider access in these countries," said Richard
Mills, spokesman for the US trade representative, the country's chief trade
negotiator and chief adviser to the president on trade.
Stringent protection of patents and data will potentially increase the
availability of drugs, he said.
Moreover, Peter Allgeier, the deputy trade representative, said a specific
provision in the agreement says that "not withstanding any of the
provisions in the agreement, this does not diminish the country's ability
to meet their public health needs."
He said, "If there is a public health need, or a public health crisis, is
there anything in the agreement that prevents countries from meeting their
needs? The answer is no."
Three of the signatories-Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, and
Nicaragua-have still to ratify the agreement before it can come into
effect.
Rachel COHEN
MSF Access Campaign, New York
<Rachel.COHEN@newyork.msf.org>