AEGiS-Bangkok Post: US accused of stalling WTO attempt to help poor countries: Humanitarian causes 'ignored' to protect big drug companies

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

US accused of stalling WTO attempt to help poor countries: Humanitarian causes 'ignored' to protect big drug companies

Bangkok Post - December 27, 2002

Public health activists have criticised the United States for stalling a bid by the World Trade Organisation to forge a system for giving poorer countries access to cheap medicines.

"I'm not surprised because the US has a tendency to act this way," said Rosana Tositrakul, coordinator of the Thai Holistic Health Foundation.

"The negotiations show that despite claims to be working for humanitarian causes, the US acts in the interest of pharmaceutical companies which back up the US government," she said.

The WTO has been trying to find a way for poor countries without a pharmaceutical industry to import generic copies of patented drugs to treat illnesses such as Aids, tuberculosis or malaria. On Dec 20 the US was the only WTO member still holding out against an agreement.

The WTO has been trying help member countries that cannot make generic drugs themselves. The proposals would enable them to import cheap generics in emergencies.

After blocking the consensus, the US Trade Representative said the US would not, until agreement is reached, challenge any WTO member that exports medicines to a country in need.

But the interim measure was designed to help African and other developing countries fight HIV/Aids, TB, and malaria and "other infectious epidemics of comparable gravity and scale", the US stressed. Developed member states of the WTO and developing economies classified by the World Bank as high income countries - including Hong Kong, Singapore, Brunei and Taiwan - would not qualify.

Consensus had not been reached, it said, because some WTO members had tried to expand the coverage of diseases to "non-emergencies", and to enable wealthier countries to override a wide range of drug patents, including Viagra.

It remained unclear whether Thailand, which has a high incidence of HIV/Aids, would qualify for the interim measure from the US.

Access, an NGO, estimates that about 160,000 people are living with Aids, with another 800,000 HIV-positive. Some agencies working on Aids puts the death rate at seven a day.

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