Developing Countries Dig In for Better Deal on Medicines

Oxfam-America
Friday, 29 August 2003

Last night developing countries united in a last ditch attempt to secure a better deal on access to medicines and patent rights, says international agency Oxfam. Delegates have been involved in lengthy negotiations over the last few days in Geneva and developing countries have been under great pressure to accept a deal that, while it contains some apparent concessions, would make it very difficult for them to get access to affordable medicines.

Despite rumours that the deal had already been finalized, continued negotiation from key countries, including the Philippines, has meant that the current proposal has not been formalized and there is still hope for a more favorable conclusion.

Phil Bloomer, Oxfam's Head of Advocacy, said: "The proposal as it stands would be bad news for developing countries because while it contains some apparent concessions, the proliferation of red tape would mean that developing countries would struggle to benefit. What we have seen the constant addition of extra caveats that would impede access to cheap medicines at every stage. It is imperative that developing countries are supported in their efforts to hold out for a more workable deal, and that a disappointing compromise is not accepted just for the sake of reaching a conclusion."

Despite some important successes, including stopping the US and the pharmaceutical lobby from limiting the scope of diseases covered by the agreement, developing countries would find it hard to benefit from the deal as it stands. No matter how desperate the health need, a developing country without the capacity to produce a needed drug (which is virtually all of them) would have to ask another government to suspend the relevant patent and license a local company to produce and export it. Few countries, if any, would be prepared to help other countries in this way, as it would provoke retaliation by the US which fiercely defends the commercial interests of the pharmaceutical corporations.

Furthermore, the agreement is so complicated as to be largely unworkable—it amends a clause of only 20 words, yet it now runs to more than seven whole pages. In practice, most poor countries would end up paying the high price for patented medicines or, most probably, doing without.

Bloomer added: "If confirmed, this deal would be a betrayal of the pledge made in the Doha Declaration to put public health before patent rights. It is profoundly unfair to create fresh obstacles for developing countries trying to obtain affordable generic medicines purely in the interests of an industry that, in the US alone, made $37 billion in profit last year".

For more information, or to contact Oxfam-America, see their website at: www.oxfamamerica.org