PHA-Exchange> Japanese Proposal to WTO on Generic Drug Access Fails

[aviva]

>Japanese Proposal To Break WTO 'Impasse' on Generic Drug Access Fails
>February 6, 2003.
>
>A Japanese proposal offered as an attempt to solve the current
"impasse"
>in World Trade Organization talks over allowing developing countries
that
>do not have the ability to domestically produce medicines the right to
>import low-cost generic drugs, including those used to treat HIV/AIDS,
>failed yesterday, Agence France-Presse reports.
>
>Similar to previous plans offered by the United States and the
European
>Union, Japan's proposal would have offered a list of 22 diseases for
which
>developing countries could import drugs, but it also recommended that
the
>WTO Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Council
confirm
>coverage of any diseases not listed and seek "views of any outside
>experts" (Agence France-Presse, 2/5).
>
>The proposal was one of several attempts to reach an agreement after
>ambassadors representing 144 nations in December 2002 failed to meet a
>self-imposed deadline to clarify the November 2001 Doha declaration.
The
>agreement states that WTO member nations can ignore pharmaceutical
patents
>and domestically produce generic drugs in cases of public health
>emergencies. However, drugs produced under such "compulsory licensing"
>agreements were meant only to be used domestically and not exported,
>leaving developing countries without a pharmaceutical industry unable
to
>benefit from the declaration because they can neither make drugs nor
>import them. The talks stalled after the United States "insisted" that
the
>deal should apply only to drugs used to treat certain infectious
diseases
>such as HIV/AIDS