PHA-Exchange> Guatemalan Congress repeals law that restricted access to medicines

[UNNIKRISHNAN P.V. (Dr)]

Information dated 26.11.2004 


>From MSF: 
Guatemalan Congress repeals law that restricted access to medicines 



MSF warns that this step forward could be reversed by similar provisions
in the recently signed United States-Central American Free Trade
Agreement (CAFTA) 




 <http://www.accessmed-msf.org> Geneva/Guatemala City - The Guatemalan
Congress's repeal of a law that severely restricts people's access to
affordable essential medicines is a positive step forward. 

The international humanitarian medical aid organization Médecins Sans
Frontières (MSF) said today that the government of Guatemala should now
take advantage of this decision to ensure treatment for greater numbers
of Guatemalans living with HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases. 

But MSF also warned that this step forward could be undermined and
reversed by similar provisions included in the recently signed United
States-Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). 

In 2003, the Guatemalan government modified its national intellectual
property law with Decree 9-2003, which provided five years of "data
exclusivity" on drugs registered for use in the country. This provision
created an automatic five-year delay in the availability of generic
medicines regardless of their patent status in a country. 

For the nearly 70,000 Guatemalans currently living with HIV/AIDS - 7,000
of whom are in urgent clinical need of such treatment - five years
without affordable generic medicines could be a death sentence.
Presently, only 2,700 Guatemalans with HIV receive antiretroviral
treatment. 

"A lot of people throughout Guatemalan society succeeded in pressuring
their government to overturn a law that undermined public health," said
Pere-Joan Pons, spokesperson for MSF's mission in Guatemala. "Now, the
Ministry of Health will need to act to urgently expand access for all
the Guatemalans who would otherwise die without treatment." 

However, MSF warned that CAFTA includes "data exclusivity" and other
restrictive intellectual property measures and extends them throughout
the entire Central American region. This will further prevent Costa
Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua from taking
advantage of flexibilities found in the existing World Trade
Organization agreement and block generic competition - the only proven
mechanism for achieving sustained and systematic price reductions. 

"We cannot stop at the repeal of the Guatemalan law which blocked
patients from receiving life-saving medicines. Repealing Decree 9-2003
will have little meaning if this and other intellectual property
restrictions are implemented through CAFTA," said Ellen 't Hoen, the
director of policy advocacy for MSF's Campaign for Access to Essential
Medicines. 

MSF has been treating people living with HIV/AIDS in Guatemala since
2001. Today, MSF medical teams treat more than 1,600 patients with ARVs
in two Guatemala City hospitals, and health centers in Coatepeque and
Puerto Barrios. 

Many of the restrictive intellectual property provisions in CAFTA are
also included in free trade agreements completed with Singapore, Chile,
and Morocco, as well as in the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas
(FTAA) and regional agreements with four Andean countries (Bolivia,
Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru) and five southern African countries in the
Southern African Customs Union (Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South
Africa, and Swaziland.) 
 
 
Dr. Unnikrishnan PV
Emergencies & Human Security Advisor (Asia)
International Emergencies Team, ActionAid International 
Cell: +91 98450 91319             E-mail: unni at actionaid.org Web:
www.actionaid.org
 
 Regional Office- Bangalore                     Asia Regional Office
International Emergencies Team   
139, Richmond Road                               13th Floor, Regent
House Bldg.              Hamlyn House, Macdonald Road   
Bangalore- 560 025                                183, Rajdamri Road,
Lumpini                  Archway   
India                                                        Bangkok-
10330, Thailand                      London N19 5PG
 
Tel: +91 80 2558 6682                            Tel: +66 2 651 9066-9
Tel: +44 (0) 207 561 7593   
Fax: +91 80 2558 6284                           Fax: +66 2 651 9070
Fax: +44 (0) 207 272 0899           
       
         
                   
                       
 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://phm.phmovement.org/pipermail/phm-exchange-phmovement.org/attachments/20041127/62ae7c94/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 67 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://phm.phmovement.org/pipermail/phm-exchange-phmovement.org/attachments/20041127/62ae7c94/attachment-0007.gif>