[e-farmacos] NY Times: La urgencia de los medicamentos baratos

[e-farmacos@usa.healthnet.org]

E-farmacos: NY Times: La urgencia de los medicamentos baratos
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[Reproducimos este editorial publicado en el New York Times que HH
distribuyo a traves de la lista de discusion 'e-drug'(gracias). Es un
punto de vista interesante, por el origen del texto, que termina
afirmando: "El antrax ha matado a unos cuantos Anericanos. El SIDA ha
matado a 22 millones de personas en todo el mundo. Seguramente hoy los
americanos podran entender la necesidad de dar a los paises pobres
cualquier arma posible para luchar contra esta enfermedad.", AF]

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/31/opinion/31WED3.html?ex=1005527735&ei=1&en=fda897489a216176

The Urgency of Cheaper Drugs
31 October 2001

When the federal government wanted to stockpile the antibiotic Cipro as
a treatment for anthrax, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy
Thompson persuaded Bayer, the patent holder, to cut the price of the
drug by threatening to buy generic versions. Yet the Bush administration
is derailing efforts by poor countries
ravaged by AIDS to facilitate their efforts to do the same.

Members of the World Trade Organization are meeting in Doha, Qatar, on
Nov. 9 to try to launch a new round of high-level talks on trade. The
majority of the world's nations, led by Brazil, want to pass a
declaration stating that nothing in the World Trade Organization rules
governing patents would prevent governments
from safeguarding public health.

The nations pushing for change want to broaden the World Trade
Organization's rules on intellectual property to make it easier for
countries to manufacture or import low-cost drugs, especially the
anti-AIDS cocktail that costs more than $10,000 per year in the
developed world. While current world trade rules allow countries to
break patents under certain circumstances, among them public health
emergencies, no country has done it for AIDS medicines, in part because
of pressure from Washington. A World Trade Organization resolution
clearly stating that public health comes first would give these nations
political support.

The United States and Switzerland, home to many multinational drug
companies, are blocking the declaration and proposing a weaker version,
unacceptable to most other countries. Their draft proposal puts less
weight on public health needs and does not fix some important barriers
to cheaper drugs, especially one that will
prohibit countries that can make generics from exporting them to nations
that lack the capacity. The American government, echoing drug makers,
argues that patents are not a significant bar to AIDS treatment.

It is true that other problems, including lack of trained people to
deliver the medicines, impede AIDS treatment. But for millions of AIDS
sufferers, patents that keep drug prices high are a major reason that
AIDS treatment is out of reach. Anthrax has killed a handful of
Americans so far. AIDS has killed 22 million worldwide. Americans today
can surely understand the need to give poor countries every possible
weapon to fight back.


[NOTA: Mensaje sin acentos ni caracteres especiales.]
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