HEALTH: Battle for Cheap Drugs Also Being Lost in WTO

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Nov 14 2006 (IPS) – The only concrete result to come out of the 2001 World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial conference in Doha, Qatar appeared to be the Declaration on Intellectual Property and Public Health, since the rest of the decisions on a new round of trade talks are at a standstill.
The only concrete result to come out of the 2001 World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial conference in Doha, Qatar appeared to be the Declaration on Intellectual Property and Public Health, since the rest of the decisions on a new round of trade talks are at a standstill.

But on Tuesday, the fifth anniversary of the adoption of the agreement that put public health needs above commercial interests, leading global NGOs complained that the declaration has not brought the hoped-for results.

Rich countries have broken the spirit of the Doha declaration, said Céline Charveriat, head of Oxfam International s Make Trade Fair Campaign.

The declaration said the right things but needed political action to work and that hasn t happened. In fact, we ve actually gone backwards. Many people are dying or suffering needlessly, she added.

Five years after the historic declaration, the prices of medicine continue to climb, said Tido von Schoen-Angerer, who heads up Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines.
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To bring pharmaceutical prices down, countries must make greater use of the flexibilities for public health protection in developing nations that are provided for by the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), said the MSF activist.

One of the clauses of the Declaration on Intellectual Property and Public Health makes a commitment to interpret and apply TRIPS in such a way that supports the right of WTO member countries to protect public health and, in particular, to promote universal access to medicines.

The Doha declaration states that developing countries can enforce public health safeguards by allowing the introduction of low-cost generic medicines that drive prices down, says Oxfam in a new report published Tuesday.

It also obligates WTO members to facilitate the export of generic medicines to all poor countries with little capability for domestic production, the report adds.

But that is not what has happened, adds the study: Patents vs. Patients: Five Years After the Doha Declaration , which recalls that in 2000, world leaders made health one of the top priorities of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Of the eight MDGs, three are aimed at advances in health, such as reducing infant mortality, improving maternal health and setting precise targets for the fight against AIDS, malaria and other diseases.

However, the health crises plaguing developing nations show no signs of easing up, says Oxfam. Infectious diseases, for example, continue to kill millions of children and adolescents, it adds.

Since the adoption of the Declaration on Intellectual Property and Public Health on Nov. 14, 2001, more than 20 million people have been infected by HIV, the AIDS virus, bringing the total number of people with HIV/AIDS to 38.6 million.

In the meantime, TRIPS, which was approved during the Uruguay Round (1986-1994), the WTO s predecessor, has obligated countries to adopt a U.S.-style intellectual property regime, including a 20-year extension on patents for medicines, says the Oxfam report.

The argument that protection of intellectual property and the benefits arising from the consequent monopoly support scientific innovation is debatable, said Charveriat.

On the contrary, protection of intellectual property, by impeding competition from low-cost generic drugs, results in steadily rising prices for medicines, with disastrous consequences for millions of poor people around the world, she argued.

MSF also mentioned the case of competition from generic drugs, which has driven down the prices of first-line antiretroviral drugs used to treat people living with HIV/AIDS from around 10,000 dollars per patient per year in 2000 to the current average of 130 dollars.

However, the cost of second-line antiretroviral drugs, which are needed by patients who have developed resistance to the first-line treatments, is still steep due to the patent barriers put in place in some key generic drug-producing countries like India, said von Schoen-Angerer.

Charveriat noted that according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 74 percent of antiretroviral medicines remain under monopoly protection, while 77 percent of people living with HIV in Africa have no access to treatment and 30 percent of the population has no regular access to essential medicines.

One of the reasons for this situation is that rich countries, especially the United States, bully developing nations to adopt stricter intellectual property standards in order to preserve the monopolies enjoyed by the pharmaceutical giants, by restricting competition from generic drugs and thus keeping prices high, said Charveriat.

Global health statistics are grim but the U.S. continues to negotiate trade deals with even stricter rules that limit how a country can use public health safeguards, she said.

A free trade agreement that Colombia is negotiating with the United States, for instance, would make it necessary for that South American country to spend an additional 940 million dollars a year by 2020 to cover the rising cost of pharmaceuticals, at the expense of some six million patients.

And in Peru, which has also negotiated a free trade deal with the United States, medicine prices could rise 100 percent in 10 years and 162 percent in 18 years, Charveriat predicted.

Oxfam said the Doha declaration could regain effectiveness if the WTO reviews the effects of the TRIPS accord in such a way that its member states preserve the ability to protect public health.

Another formula would be for the United States to stop pressuring other countries to adopt stricter intellectual property laws, especially through negotiations of free trade agreements.

The humanitarian organisation also urges wealthy countries to grant political and technical support to developing nations in order for them to employ the safeguards provided for by TRIPS to ensure universal access to affordable medicines.

Rich countries must live up to their commitments and stop undermining the Doha Declaration with their selfish actions, Charveriat said. Now more than ever we need a global trading system that puts health before profit and makes medicines affordable for all.