[e-drug] Dominican Republic starts generic ARV production despite US trade

[Asia Russell <asia@CritPath.Org>]

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E-DRUG: Dominican Republic starts generic ARV production despite US trade
pressure
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[Good to have generic production started, but at USD 260 per MONTH that is
still a lot
more expensive than USD 350 per YEAR, as offered by at least 3 Indian
generic manufacturers! Did the generic company obtain a voluntary or
compulsory license?
Any Dominican E-drugger who can inform us a bit more? NN]

PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release August 8, 2001
Contact: Asia Russell +1 267 475 2645 mobile / +1 215 731-1844 office

AIDS Activists Demand an End to Escalating US Pressure against Dominican
Republic as Local Generic AIDS Drug Production Begins

Activists responded today to a Dominican generic pharmaceutical company¹s
launch of generic versions of the anti-HIV drugs indinavir and AZT+3TC. The
Dominican Republic and Haiti together account for 85% of the Caribbean¹s HIV
cases. The Caribbean is the region of the world hardest hit by HIV after
sub-Saharan Africa.

Local drug patent laws in the Dominican Republic have long been the target
of intense pressure from the US Trade Representative (USTR) and the US
pharmaceutical industry. AIDS activists warn that increased pressure or
threat of trade sanctions from the US government in response to the
production of these pharmaceuticals will effectively block the availability
of lowest cost, life-extending medication in the Dominican Republic and the
rest of the Caribbean.

"Generic competition can cut HIV drug prices dramatically. Use of WTO-legal
safeguards like compulsory licensing and parallel importing are important
strategies for increasing access to AIDS drugs in poor countries," said Asia
Russell of the Health GAP Coalition. "If the US has its way, these
strategies will never be fully exploited in the Dominican Republic or the
rest of the Caribbean. Poor people with AIDS will be have to depend on the
unreliable, unprolific force of drug company charity when they need drugs to
extend their lives and are too poor to pay top dollar."

The Dominican government passed a new industrial property law in 2000, which
contains provisions protecting the use of safeguards such as compulsory
licensing of patented pharmaceuticals. The USTR, working in concert with US
pharmaceutical industry, has placed the Dominican Republic on the USTR
Special 301 Watch List every year since 1998. (Placement on this list is a
harbinger of increased trade pressure.)

"Production from one local company in the Dominican Republic is a first step
toward replicating what is happening among generic manufacturers in other
parts of the world, where competition is exerting dramatic pressure on drug
prices. If the US does not abandon its pressure campaign against the
Dominican Republic, they will face the opposition of access activists from
the US and around the world," said Julie Davids of Health GAP.

"The prices must come down even lower than what has been announced today by
Rowe [the local generic manufacturer] Milano of Health GAP. "Generic
competition and countries¹ use of WTO-legal
safeguards will help make that happen. If US pressure rules the day in the
Dominican Republic, high prices will continue to keep drugs out of reach of
poor people with AIDS in the Caribbean."

AIDS drugs have been available from multinational drug companies in the
Dominican Republic, but at prices unaffordable to virtually all Dominicans
with AIDS<400% higher than the prices for generic versions launched today
(US$260 per person per month for AZT+3TC and indinavir).

Activists claim that the US is using other settings in addition to bilateral
pressure to obstruct access to affordable drugs and other poor countries
Americas (FTAA), the free trade pact for the Western Hemisphere, and through
the WTO Council on the TRIPS agreement (Trade Related Aspects of
Intellectual Property Rights). At the most recent TRIPS Council, many rich
and poor countries asserted that current interpretations of WTO agreements
on patent protection create drug access problems for poor countries. The US,
however, stood almost alone in opposition to this view, insisting that
patent monopolies for life extending drugs cause no access problems in poor
countries.

According to activists, the current US position on FTAA would create drug
patent protection even more stringent than currently required by World Trade
Organization rules, and would undermine efforts to create sustainable access
to affordable AIDS drugs in the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Argentina, and
other Latin American countries with capacity for local generic drug
production.

"The current US FTAA position would hobble efforts in Dominican Republic to
get affordable life extending drugs to poor people with AIDS," said
Sharonann Lynch of Health GAP and ACT UP New York. "The US must be stopped
from using the FTAA to leverage increased patent protection on desperately
needed treatments."


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