[e-drug] Dow Jones: WTO and US threat to Bayer patent

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E-drug: Dow Jones: WTO and US threat to Bayer patent
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[Cross-posted from Ip-health. Thanks. HH]

This is a Dow Jones story that ran in the India Economic Times. It
quotes Nelson Ndirangu, a key Kenyan negotiator, and Celso
Amorim from Brazil. As a minor quibble, I think the terms "break" or
"bust" the patent are colorful phrases that are fun to read, but what
is really at stake is breaking or busting the patent monopoly,
allowing competitors to use the patent, subject to a government set
compensation to the patent owner. Jamie

James Love
Consumer Project on Technology
P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
http://www.cptech.org, mailto:love@cptech.org
voice: 1.202.387.8030 fax 1.202.234.5176 mobile
1.202.361.3040

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http://www.economictimes.com/today/27worl07.htm
 
AIDS activists emboldened by US threat to bust Bayer patent

GENEVA 
AIDS activists and developing nations are seizing on US health and
human services secretary Tommy Thompson's threat to bust the
patent on Bayer AG's antibiotic to convince international trade rule
makers that poor countries should be allowed to exercise such
powers to improve access to essential medicines. 

The debate is likely to reach a peak at the coming World Trade
Organisation meeting in Doha, Qatar. Thompson's threat, part of a
negotiation strategy to obtain a steep discount, was apparently
effective -? he brokered a deal with Bayer to produce a large batch
of Cipro, the antibiotic of choice for inhalation anthrax, for 95 cents
a pill, down from $1.77. 

But it represented a sharp departure from the US's longstanding
position that countries must honour drug patents, even poor
countries struggling to treat AIDS and other diseases. 

"The events of the past few days have made those of us from
developing countries think, what we have been fighting for is fair,"
says Nelson Ndirangu, a WTO delegate from Kenya. "If the US can
tell Bayer: `Reduce the price -? or else'."Why can't Kenya tell (AIDS
drug maker GlaxoSmithKline PLC): Reduce the price ?- or else?" 

Both Brazil and India are using the US success in driving down the
cost of Cipro to argue they should be allowed the same discretion
when it comes to patented drugs for AIDS and other diseases. 

Brazil, India and other developing countries in the World Trade
Organization are pushing for broad rules that would "permit
governments to take measures protecting public health," according
to a paper presented at a WTO meeting this week. 

They want that pledge to be backed by all 142 member countries at
the ministerial meeting. In talks this week, the developing countries
argued the US was ready to break patents after just a handful of
deaths from anthrax, while rejecting similar flexibility for the tens of
millions of people suffering from HIV-AIDS and other diseases
common in developing countries. 

"What the US is doing is precisely what we do," said Celso
Amorim, Brazil's ambassador to the WTO. "It seems to be different
for rich countries." 

Faced with the threat of letter-born anthrax attacks in America, the
US and Canada threatened to break the patent rights of Bayer, the
German maker of Cipro. 

Bayer this week agreed to slash its prices. James Love, director of
the Consumer Project on Technology, a patent-policy watchdog
group in Washington, says WTO delegates are abuzz over the Cipro
pricing debate. "They're besides themselves at the hypocrisy of the
position," he says. 

With the politically and emotionally charged WTO ministerial
conference opening on November 9, global health and AIDS
activists are making a clear demand: They want the US to issue a
strong, straightforward declaration that nothing should prevent any
trade agreements from blocking poor countries' ability to purchase
life-saving medicines. 

Trade officials in Geneva said the US rejected a blanket statement
about governments being allowed to take protective measures on
the grounds that it could destroy all IPR for drugs. (Dow Jones)

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