[e-drug] Washington Post editorial on WTO mini in Sydney

["Ellen 't Hoen" <ethoen@hotmail.com>]

E-drug: Washington Post editorial on WTO mini in Sydney
---------------------------------------------

Drugs for the Poor
[copied as fair use. BS]

Thursday, November 14, 2002; Page A32
� 2002 The Washington Post Company

MEMBERS OF THE World Trade Organization meet today to grapple with poor
countries' access to cheap medicines. Their job is to fill in the fine print
of last year's summit in Qatar, which concluded, to the consternation of the
pharmaceutical lobby, that developing countries should be able to buy cheap
generic copies of patented medicines when battling health crises. In the
run-up to today's talks, the lobbyists have been running to Congress with
their usual arguments: That strict fealty to the principle of patents
matters more than granting the exceptions needed to shore up the patent
system's legitimacy. The Bush administration is resisting the lobbyists'
extremism, but it still listens to the industry more than it should.

In a recent letter to African governments, an official from the U.S. Trade
Representative's Office laid out the administration's preferred fine print.
Poor countries that want to import generics should be allowed to do so; but
this option should focus "on the serious epidemics faced by Africans --
HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis." Shouldn't poor countries also be
allowed to import cheap drugs for other diseases? The United States appears
reluctant. "Broadening the solution to cover any public health problem, as
some are advocating, would divert attention and resources away from these
epidemics," the official's letter said.

The official also took restrictive views on two other points of contention.
Should poor countries be able to import cheap versions of medical equipment
as well as pharmaceuticals? "Expanding the products covered to include the
full range of diagnostic products and all other health-related items diverts
attention from the key issue of access to essential drugs," according to the
letter. Should "middle-income" countries, which often have big
concentrations of poverty, be able to import cheap medicines? The letter
said no again.

The president's trade representative, Robert Zoellick, needs to soften those
positions at today's WTO meeting. From a policy point of view, there is no
good argument for allowing patents to restrict access to medicine in poor
countries and those just climbing out of poverty; patents generally make
sense only in richer countries, where consumers can afford the new 
therapies produced in response to the incentive of patent-protected 
profits. From a  political point of view, a hard line on patents 
would be disastrous. The current round of global trade talks was 
launched last year only because
suspicious developing countries were won over by concessions on 
intellectual property. If the developing countries now feel they have 
been cheated, the chances of concluding the trade round productively 
will dim.

� 2002 The Washington Post Company

Ellen 't Hoen, LL.M.
MSF- Access to Essential Medicines Campaign
8, rue Saint-Sabin, 75544 Paris Cedex 11
tel: + 33 (0) 1 40212836
fax: + 33 (0) 1 48066868
e-mail: ellen.t.hoen@paris.msf.org
Web-site: www.accessmed-msf.org
[details added by moderator. BS]


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