PHM-Exch> The Bangkok Declaration on free trade agreements & access to medicines May 2011

[Claudio Schuftan]

*The Bangkok Declaration on free trade agreements & access to medicines*

May 2011

We the undersigned, declare our opposition to the increasingly rapid spread
of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) that put the profits of multinational
pharmaceutical companies ahead of people’s right to health around the world.
These agreements are threatening to fundamentally & permanently undermine
access to affordable medicines for millions of people. New HIV, AIDS & TB
medicines, Hepatitis C treatments, cancer medicines, essential medicines,
life saving medicines for many chronic diseases are all under threat.
Millions of people across the Global South already lack access to life
saving medicines & new trade barriers will further limit their access to
affordable medicines.

In 2001, World Trade Organization (WTO) members agreed to the Doha
Declaration which affirmed that the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual
Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement “can & should be interpreted & implemented
in a manner supportive of WTO member’s right to protect public health &, in
particular, to promote access to medicines for all.” Yet throughout the
world, on a country-by-country basis, nations are being pushed to trade away
their right to do just this.

Negotiating governments are falsely promising that these agreements will not
impact our health – yet we know this is NOT true. The implementation of the
TRIPS Agreement is already restricting access to newer medicines in the
Global South; FTA negotiations are threatening to make an already bad
situation, worse. Evidence from existing FTAs shows that they are
undermining the rights of countries to implement domestic policies aimed at
fulfilling the right to health. Studies show that FTAs with US resulted in
79% of 103 off-patent medicines not having any generic equivalent in Jordan
& in price differences of up to 845,000% in the same therapeutic segment in
Guatemala.

In the European Free Trade Agreements, the United States Trans Pacific
Partnership Agreement, & a wide variety of bilateral negotiations we know
that intellectual property & investment chapters have been tabled that would
force sweeping changes in national laws making medicines unaffordable &
unavailable in the future. The ability of India & other countries with
domestic manufacturing capacity to make low-cost medicines dictates who can
& cannot access life-saving medicines. Restricting generic production costs
lives.

We stand in opposition to any & all proposals that negatively impact access
to medicines in these FTAs including:

[image: -] *DATA EXCLUSIVITY* that prevents governments from relying on
clinical trial data to register generic versions of medicines even if they
are off-patent, their patents have expired or are revoked & complicates the
issuance of compulsory licences.

[image: -] *PATENT TERM EXTENTIONS* that extend patent life beyond 20 years.

[image: -] * INCREASING PATENT SCOPE* that significantly increases the
number of medicines under patent by forcing governments to give 20-year
monopolies on new uses & new forms of old medicines thus allowing the
extension of monopolies on these medicines by a decade or more through minor
changes in drug formulation or process.

[image: -] *PATENT LINKAGE* that prevents the registration of generic
versions of patented medicines and undermines the early working & research
exceptions thus delaying generic entry even when a compulsory licence is
issued, the patent expires or is revoked.

[image: -] *RESTRICTIONS ON COMPULSORY LICENCES* that seek to limit the
right of all countries to use compulsory licences to ensure access to
medicines for all even though this right has been repeatedly affirmed by
international treaties and declarations.

[image: -] *RESTRICTIONS ON PARALLEL IMPORTS* that prevent the import of the
cheapest priced patented medicines from anywhere in the world.

[image: -] *INVESTMENT RULES* that allow foreign companies to sue
governments in private international arbitration over domestic health
policies like compulsory licences, health safeguards in patent laws, price
reduction measures & may prevent governments from promoting local
production.

[image: -] *BORDER MEASURES* that will deny medicines to patients in other
developing countries with custom officials seizing generic medicines being
imported, in transit or that are being exported.

[image: -] *INJUNCTIONS* that undermine the independence of the judiciary in
developing countries to place the right to health of patients over profits
of multinational companies.

[image: -] *OTHER IP ENFORCEMENT MEASURES* that put third parties like
treatment providers at risk of police actions & court cases and draws the
whole manufacturing, distribution & supply chain for generic medicines into
litigation.

We also stand in opposition to all other bullying tactics employed by
developed countries & multinational companies to pressure developing
countries to adopt such harmful laws & policies including through the US
Special 301 report, training of judges & government officials, continuous
litigation & other forms of lobbying & pressure.

We call on:

[image: -] The *GOVERNMENTS OF THE UNITED STATES, EUROPEAN UNION,
SWITZERLAND, NORWAY, ICELAND, LIECHTENSTEIN, JAPAN, NEW ZEALAND, AUSTRALIA*,
& all other developed countries to immediately withdraw any and all
TRIPS-plus provisions in intellectual property and investment chapters in
FTA negotiations, to immediately cease all other forms of pressure &
lobbying with developing & least developed countries and to scrap ACTA.

[image: -] *NATIONAL GOVERNMENTS IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH* to band together &
refuse to accept any further restrictions on production, registration,
supply, import or export of generic medicines; to launch South-South
collaboration on an urgent basis to put in place a sustainable, affordable
pipeline of generic medicines for future generations; call for an immediate
review of TRIPS & its impact on access to medicines in developing & least
developed countries.

[image: -] *GOVERNMENTS IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH THAT HAVE ALREADY SIGNED* FTAs
which restrict access to affordable medicines, to immediately review &
reverse all such provisions in their FTAs and rollback harmful laws and
policies that are preventing access to affordable medicines.

[image: -] *ALL GOVERNMENTS* to immediately end secrecy around FTA
negotiations, make negotiating texts available for public scrutiny & to
support through open, transparent & public consultations assessments of the
impact of such negotiations on the right to health & other rights.

[image: -] *ALL PARLIAMENTS & CONTITUTIONAL BODIES* to immediately request
FTA negotiating texts; review their impact on the right to health & access
to medicines; refuse to endorse or ratify any FTAs that have been signed
with provisions that undermine their people’s right to access affordable
treatment; and review all local laws including patent and medicine
regulatory laws and policies to ensure all aspects and elements of the Doha
Declaration are in these laws.

[image: -] *UNAIDS & THE UN SYSTEM* to go beyond issuing a statement & craft
a proactive strategy to support the right to health in this context; make
this issue a key topic at all up-coming events & High Level meetings, ensure
full representation of community representatives & health groups at these
events, analyse the effects of potential trade agreements on access to
medicines, share this analysis publicly & provide technical assistance to
governments & civil society to ensure that FTAs do not undermine human
rights. Specifically, UNAIDS must unequivocally condemn and urgently work to
prevent the signing of FTAs that include any TRIPS-plus measures if they
truly want to scale-up access to treatment, prevent 1 million new infections
annually and if Treatment 2.0 is to actually succeed.

[image: -] The *GLOBAL FUND BOARD* to call attention to & condemn FTA
negotiations that include TRIPS-plus measures, to direct the Global Fund
secretariat to assess the financial impact of potential trade agreements,
share this analysis publicly, & ensure the adoption of procurement systems
that make optimal use of TRIPS flexibilities including encouraging countries
to use compulsory licences to ensure the GFATM does not pay excessive
premiums for patented medicines.

[image: -] The *WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION* to stop retreating from its
policy work on intellectual property & access to medicines, to ensure that
the WHO does not become a proponent of TRIPS-plus measures & to actively
support & encourage countries in using their rights in TRIPS to protect
health & promote access to medicines for all.

[image: -] *CIVIL SOCIETY GROUPS, PEOPLE LIVING WITH HIV, ALL COMMUNITIES
FACING COMMUNICABLE, CHRONIC &/OR NON-COMMUNICABLE DISEASES* in the North &
the South to join forces to halt any & all trade agreements that restrict
access to generic medicines.

We stand in solidarity with all other peoples & movements whose rights to
life, health, livelihood, equality, equity, food, environment, knowledge,
traditional systems of life & livelihood will also be negatively impacted by
these free trade agreements that threaten to widen the gap between the rich
& the poor not only between countries but within countries as well.


Over 45 signatories. see
http://www.bilaterals.org/spip.php?article19760&lang=en
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