[e-drug] Bangui Agreement on implementation of TRIPS

[Catherine Gavin <catherinegavin@netscape.net>]

E-drug: Bangui Agreement on implementation of TRIPS
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Below is a Wall Street Journal Associated Press paper published as fair 
use.

MSF is organizing several events in Geneva at the WHA; for more info, 
contact
Samanta Bolton at 32-496-2500-64.

Catherine Gavin
MSF Access Campaign Legal Advisor
Geneva
catherinegavin@netscape.net
___________________

>From the Wall Street Journal. (Friday May 12, 2000)

Group Asks African Nations Not To Sign Drug Patents Pact

Dow Jones Newswires

GENEVA (AP)--A new agreement on patent protection for medicines could put
people in danger in some of Africa's poorest nations, Doctors Without 
Borders
said Thursday.

The Nobel Prize-winning organization, known by its French initials MSF, 
called
on countries not to sign up to the Bangui Accord, which was created last 
year
by 15 French-speaking African nations.

In a report issued jointly with the World health Organization and UNAIDS, 
the
organization said the treaty could lead to dramatically increased costs for
medicines because it gives pharmaceutical companies 20 years of patent 
protection, instead of the current 10 years.

MSF spokeswoman Catherine Gavin said the accord, which has not yet come 
into
force, was planned to replace a previous one, also signed in Bangui in 
1977.

This had to be changed to meet the rules of the World Trade Organization,
which say governments must give 20 years' protection on patents.

Gavin said patent protection meant that companies could charge any price 
they
wanted in a country, or decide not to put certain drugs on the market there 
at all.

The same quantity of the ulcer drug Zantac, produced by Glaxo Wellcome, 
costs
$20 in Australia but $150 in Indonesia, Gavin said.

"The medicine is often much more expensive in developing countries," she
added. "The price level is not related to purchasing power."

"The new rules mean the price of medicines will be 10 to 20 times more than
they would be if they were generic. For people suffering from AIDS or other
serious infections such as meningitis or pneumonia, this is basically a 
death
sentence," said Bernard Pecoul, director of MSF's Access to Medicines
Campaign, in a statement.

Under WTO rules, the so-called "least-developed countries" - of whom 10 are
covered by the Bangui Accord - have until January 2006 to change their 
patent
systems.

But if the accord is ratified by at least 10 members, countries would find
themselves forced to change their systems immediately. So far three nations 
-
Cameroon, Gabon and Senegal - have ratified and another three are close to 
ratification.

"MSF believes the new text will make the access to medication worse in the
countries involved. Least-developed countries must not give in to the 
Bangui
Accord before 2006. We call on them not to ratify it," added Gavin.

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