PHA-Exchange> Panos News Release - ACCESS TO ESSENTIAL DRUGS

[Aviva]

From: "Mark Covey" <MarkC at panoslondon.org.uk>


> ACCESS TO ESSENTIAL DRUGS MAY BE UNDERMINED BY GLOBAL PATENT AGREEMENT
>
 December 1 World AIDS Day
>
> A third of the world's population still has no access to essential drugs.
In
> the poorest countries of Africa and Asia this figure rises to half. With
the
> global agreement on intellectual property rights (TRIPS) forcing countries
> to introduce new patent protection laws over the next decade, this
situation
> could worsen, according to a new report from the London-based Panos
> Institute.
>
> Developing countries have until 2005 or 2016 to implement TRIPS-compliant
> legislation on pharmaceuticals. So far many governments have drafted or
> enacted legislation that seems to prioritise patent rights over public
> health. Some countries are being pressurised into adopting policies that
go
> further than TRIPS in protecting patents.
>
> Patents give big international pharmaceutical firms monopoly over
production
> of new drugs, including, for example, those needed to treat HIV/AIDS.
There
> is concern they may push up prices, and the TRIPS rules could thus limit
> poor countries' freedom to buy cheaper "generic" versions of patented
drugs.
> For example, in January 2001, South African HIV/AIDS treatment activist
> Zackie Ahmat went to Thailand to buy 5,000 pills of the generic version of
> an anti-fungal drug patented by the US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. He
paid
> $0.21 a pill. The price of the patented version in South Africa was $13.
>
 The Panos Report, Patents, Pills and  Public Health: can TRIPS deliver?
<http://www.panos.org.uk/briefing/TRIPS_front.htm>
warns that patent legislation is not being debated widely enough in
> most developing countries, and the process of introducing it needs to be
> more consultative and transparent.
>
> In Uganda, for example, American consultants were brought in to review the
> country's patent laws and make proposals for reform. The result was the
> drafting of laws which, according to local campaigners, are skewed in
favour
> of business interests rather than social or development needs.
>
> The principle of extending access to essential drugs in poor countries is
> widely supported, but the means of doing this is still hotly disputed,
says
> the report. According to the World Bank, middle-income countries may
benefit
> from increased foreign investment, but if the cost of drugs rises as a
> result of patent systems spreading throughout the developing world, there
is
> a real danger of restricting access to drugs, such as anti-AIDS drugs,
where
> they are most needed. The World Health Organisation suggests that
> implementing patent protection where it did not already exist would result
> in the average price of drugs rising, with projected increases ranging
from
> 12 to 200 percent.
>
> The pharmaceutical industry argues that patent systems promote innovation
> and investment in research and development. Without patents, new ones
would
> not be developed to tackle diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.
They
> believe the real barriers to making drugs more available are poverty, weak
> political leadership, lack of trained health personnel and poor health
> infrastructures.
>
>  The report examines alternative approaches and gives examples where
> differential pricing (where poorer countries pay considerably less for a
> product than wealthier ones) and compulsory licensing (where a patent is
> overridden in return for a payment of a royalty) have potential, although
> they are not free of problems.
>
> Two countries highlighted in the report, show how differently patent
> protection can impact on the nation's public health:
>
> Brazil is seen as a model for other countries of what can be achieved for
> public health by boosting local production of drugs such as the anti-AIDS
> drug AZT, lowering prices through competition and negotiating discounts on
> patented drugs. Between 1996 and 2001 around 358,000 AIDS hospitalisations

> were prevented, saving around $1.1 billion.
>
> On the other hand, Thailand's capacity to provide essential drugs for its
> people has been severely limited in the last decade due to relentless
> pressure from the US to tighten up its patent laws which, they complained,
> meant the loss of $30 million a year in sales for the American
> pharmaceutical industry because it referred only to pharmaceutical
processes
> and not products. The US went as far as imposing $165 millions' worth of
> sanctions on eight Thai products exported to the US. The US continued to
> exert pressure until the patent laws were changed and made even more
> restrictive than the international TRIPS agreement requires.
>
> "This report should be a wake-up call to developing countries to look
> carefully at how they go about complying with TRIPS legislation and make
> sure that access to essential drugs is kept as an overriding right for the
> entire population - not just a wealthy few" says Martin Foreman, author of
> the Panos report.
>
>
> The full report can be downloaded from
> http://www.panos.org.uk/briefing/TRIPS_front.htm

> For further information contact  Martin Foreman,
> idiomist at aol.com
>
> The Panos Institute is an independent, non-profit organisation
specialising
> in communication for development. It works to catalyse informed public
> debate, particularly in developing countries. It has 12 offices in Africa,
> Asia, Europe and the Caribbean.
>
> Extended versions of the country studies in the report will also be
available to download from the site soon.
>