PHA-Exchange> PATENTS AND PHARMACEUTICAL ACCESS

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From: "Patrick Burnett/Fahamu" <patrick at fahamu.org.za>

PATENTS AND PHARMACEUTICAL ACCESS
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=13&ItemID=3694
The 56th World Health Assembly - the annual health meeting at which the
World Health Organisation's (WHO) directives are set for the year - ended
last week in Geneva after a long round of discussions on the continuing SARS
saga. Press coverage of the Assembly also focused on the completion of a
tobacco control resolution, which the U.S. delegation agreed to sign in
exchange for deals that will secure a future pact on sugar imports. But the
resolution receiving the longest debate among the delegates of the 192
member governments attending the WHO's Assembly received little attention
outside of the business press.

The controversy was over a resolution mandating the WHO to advise
governments about patent rules and access to medicines. Patent laws in many
developing countries are now set through a combination of World Trade
Organisation (WTO) directives, World Intellectual Property Organization
(WIPO) advice, and U.S. bilateral trade pressure. But because the WTO's
Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement
requires developing countries to pass national legislation guaranteeing
patent terms of two decades for pharmaceuticals, the prices of new drugs for
both common and rare conditions is expected to double soon after January
2005. The TRIPS Agreement, passed more than a decade ago under the aegis of
the WTO, was described as a "free trade" measure by its key architect,
Pfizer CEO (and Ronald Reagan trade advisor) Edmund Pratt. By definition, it
is the complete opposite of competition-based trade: it grants
pharmaceutical companies a monopoly on any new product they produce, and
therefore allows drug prices to be set to the purchasing standards of the
elite, to the obvious detriment of the poor.