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Progress on drug patents at WTO
12/11/2001 18:21 - (SA)
Dohan - Trade negotiators have narrowed gaps on reconciling protection for rich country patents on medicines with poor countries' demands for access to cheap drugs to tackle epidemics such as Aids, a senior US official said on Monday.
The emotive dispute has dominated a five-day conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in the Gulf state of Qatar, where ministers are hoping to launch a new round of negotiations to lower barriers to global commerce.
By late Sunday countries discussing the drugs issue "began to reach a better sense of convergence", the official told reporters. "I think yesterday was a day of good progress on that."
The issue of patent rules - known as Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, or TRIPS in WTO jargon - has bitterly divided developed and developing countries.
WTO officials see resolving it as essential to correcting the image that freer trade favours the rich over the poor.
Despite the progress, a European envoy remained cautious. "There is no consensus text yet and I don't think there will be until the last minute. We're not out of the woods yet," he said.
Developing countries, led by Brazil and India, are seeking a waiver on public health grounds of rules that guarantee 20-year patents on medicines.
They say they cannot afford the costly drugs needed to treat millions suffering from diseases such as Aids and malaria, and must be able to make or import cheap generic versions without fear of litigation from drug companies or the WTO.
Drug firms unhappy
Led by the United States, industrialised countries are reluctant to provide a blanket waiver, fearing its impact on other patents and a threat to the US$300 billion-a-year drugs industry.
They say the 1994 TRIPS agreement already provides enough flexibility for poor countries to respond to health emergencies.
To appease its critics, Washington has proposed giving the least developed countries a 10-year extension until 2016 to implement TRIPS and a five-year moratorium on contesting any drug patent actions taken by sub-Saharan Africa.
Poor countries at Doha have complained that this concession does not go far enough.
A text drafted by Norway aims to satisfy both sides.
"We agree that the TRIPS agreement shall not prevent members from taking measures to protect public health," it says.
"Accordingly, while reiterating our commitment to the TRIPS agreement, we affirm that the agreement shall be interpreted and implemented in a manner consistent with WTO members' rights to protect public health and, in particular, to ensure access to medicines for all.
"In this connection, we reaffirm the right of WTO members to use, to the full, the provisions of the TRIPS agreement, which provide flexibility for this purpose."
An official from Switzerland, home to a clutch of giant drug firms, said the proposed text was far too vague, while a pharmaceuticals lobby group said it left the industry wide open to piracy.
"This text is still quite unacceptable for us," said Harvey Bale, secretary-general of the Geneva-based International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers.
French Trade Minister Francois Huwart described the proposed compromise as a step forward but said it did not take into account the plight of very poor countries that, unlike Brazil and India, do not have the capacity to produce drugs themselves.
- Reuters
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