[e-drug] TRIPS: will the majority prevail?

[Olivier Jablonski <jablonski@altern.org>]

E-drug: TRIPS: will the majority prevail?
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Act-Up Paris, Consumer Project on Technology, Consumers 
International, Health GAP Coalition, Medecins sans Frontieres, 
Oxfam, Tebtebba Foundation, Third World Network

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TRIPS: will the majority prevail?
NGO Statement on Ministerial Declaration on TRIPS and Public 
Health: the bottom line


(11 November 2001) We call on the WTO Members at the Doha 
Ministerial Conference to endorse an interpretation of the TRIPS 
Agreement that protects public health. This declaration will 
determine whether people living in developing countries will be 
supported in measures to gain access to life saving drugs.

We support the leadership declared by the 71 countries of the 
African, Pacific, and Caribbean Countries, that the Ministerial 
Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health must state 
that "nothing in the TRIPS Agreement shall prevent governments 
from taking measures to protect public health". Given the support 
among Latin American and Asian countries, it is clear that the 
majority of WTO Members now support this proposal.

At a minimum, the declaration on TRIPS and Public Health should 
affirm the following points:

nothing in the TRIPS Agreement shall prevent governments 
from taking measures to protect public health,

governments have the right to grant compulsory licences and 
determine the grounds on which these licences can be granted,

countries have the right to export medicines under Article 30 of the
TRIPS for any valid public health purpose, to ensure that all 
countries can benefit from compulsory licences, including those 
without manufacturing capacity,

parallel imports are allowed under the TRIPS Agreement and there should be
no conditionalities or limitations on the rights of 
WTO Members to take such measures

an extension of five years and ten years of the deadline for
implementing patent protection for healthcare products and 
processes for developing countries and least developed 
countries, respectively. This extension would operate without 
prejudice to least developed countries' rights to further 
extensions under Article 66.1.

A declaration that excludes any of these points calls TRIPS into 
question.  Without a strong declaration on TRIPS and public health, 
countries will be asked to implement intellectual property rules that 
harm the public health. This is unacceptable.

Language to be avoided in the Declaration on TRIPS and Public 
Health includes:

restricting country use of safeguards to the presence of 
"public health crises" and to the presence of specific 
pandemics (excluding conditions like cancer, pneumonia, and asthma)
requiring developing countries to react only 
when a public health problem has already become a crisis.

a moratorium on dispute settlement, which can only be 
applied in extremely restrictive circumstances. The current 
draft Declaration language, for example, declares a 
moratorium only for sub-Saharan Africa developing countries 
in connection with patented medicines that are used in the
treatment of HIV/AIDS and other pandemics.

We urge the developed countries, particularly the United States, 
Japan, and Switzerland, to withdraw their opposition to developing 
country proposals.

We also call on the EU to stop shirking its responsibility in taking the
so-called "middle ground" in this debate. Instead of demonstrating 
its support for the developing countries, the EU has chosen to play 
the role of an "honest broker" to bridge the difference between the 
developing countries and the US-hard-line position. The EU has to 
choose its side now?either there is a clear statement on the primacy 
of public health, or there is not.


For more information, contact:
Gaelle Krikorian, Act-Up Paris +33 609 17 7055
James Love, Consumer Project on Technology, 539 2726
Jayanti Durai, Consumers International +44 797 4922 703
Asia Russell, Health GAP Coalition +1 267 475 2645
Daniel Berman (+41 79 286 9649) or,
Ellen ?t Hoen (+33 6 22 37 5871), Medecins sans Frontieres
Michael Bailey, Oxfam +44 79 68 196 102 or +44 77 99 606 987
Cecilia Oh, Third World Network: +60 12 485 1951

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Olivier Jablonski
Act Up-Paris
+ 33(0)6 60 64 54 68
www.actupp.org


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