Integrated Regional Information Networks - November 16, 2001

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan also welcomed the declaration, and said he was especially pleased by the WTO's affirmation that nothing in the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) should prevent developing countries from taking measures to protect public health.

"This will lead to increased availability of drugs to combat AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other epidemics," Annan added.

The United Nations' World Health Organisation (WHO) also welcomed as "an historic declaration" the WTO ministers' statement that the global Agreement on TRIPS "should be interpreted so as to protect public health and promote access to medicine for all." [full Doha Declaration at http://www.wto.org/] The WHO would continue to work with member states, with the WTO and with other relevant organisations to help with implementation, it stated on Thursday.

In advance of the WTO meeting held in Doha, Qatar, from 9-13 November, developing countries had demanded that the trade regulatory body allow them set aside patents in certain circumstances to make cheaper, generic drugs available to their people - especially to combat the HIV/AIDS pandemic which has wrought havoc on the third world.

The world's Least Developed Countries (LDCs) met in Zanzibar, Tanzania, in July and agreed a common negotiating position for Doha that they would not support higher labour and environment standards being promoted by the US and European Union unless there was progress on access to essential drugs. There had been concern, however, that pressure from developed countries - including alleged threats of aid cuts - would undermine that common stand.

Humanitarian organisations have been campaigning hard for WTO rules that would allow developing countries to manufacture or import low-cost equivalents of patented drugs, and especially of expensive anti-HIV/AIDS drug cocktails, to ensure broader access to them. [for more details, go to http://www.globaltreatmentaccess.org/

Ugandan Minister of State for Finance Sam Kuteesa on Thursday welcomed the WTO decision as a breakthrough for Uganda, where second-generation drugs could help reduce costs and increase the number of HIV-positive people accessing anti-retroviral medicines (ARVs) to control their illness, AFP news agency reported.

The Ugandan authorities were uncertain about the value and effectiveness of generic anti-AIDS drugs but said they would certainly use them if they were proven effective, and patented rugs were not affordable, the country's independent Monitor newspaper reported on Tuesday, 13 November.

A number of Ugandan companies, including Kampala Pharmaceutical Industries and Rene Industries, are planning to manufacture ARVs, it added.

The Kenya Coalition for Access to Essential Medicines (KCAEM) also welcomed the Doha declaration. "Very simply, it puts governments in the driving seat to be able to put life before profit, while in practical terms, this means if pharmaceutical company prices are beyond the reach of the poor, Kenya can disregard the patent without fear of reprisal," it said in a statement on Thursday.

In Kenya, anti-AIDS drugs are still too expensive for most people who need them, four months after the government passed a bill intended to allow access to cheaper drugs, according for campaigners for access to essential medicines. ARVs generally cost between US $2.5 and $5 per day in Kenya for those living with HIV/AIDS who could afford them; the average Kenyan income is in the region of $1 per day, AFP news agency reported last week.

It quoted Chris Ouma, a doctor working with the nongovernmental organisation Action Aid, as saying that an estimated 800,000 Kenyans had died of AIDS since the Kenyan government passed a law in June, which was intended to increase public access to vital drugs.

No date has been set for the application of the law, the government has failed to deliver on promises to improve doctors training and laboratory facilities, and nor has it entered negotiations with drug companies on the price of essential medicines, AFP reported.

The new WTO declaration was "a great victory that puts the responsibility squarely on the shoulders of the Ministers for Trade and Health to bring down the cost of essential medicines and increase access to life-saving treatments for the Kenyan people," the Kenya Coalition for Access to Essential Medicines (KCAEM) quoted independent lawyer Sisule Musungu as saying.

"The next step is to effectively use all existing provisions of the law to make this a reality," Musungu added.

In a separate development, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said that for the first time in the Doha Declaration, countries had firmly acknowledged that the globalisation of commerce and the reduction of trade barriers must take into account environmental issues and the development needs of the world's poorer countries.

"Negotiations on trade and the environment were, until recently, a taboo subject in the WTO," said UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer. "But the Ministerial Declaration issued in Qatar has shown that countries are now willing to address these complex links between the need to liberalise trade and the need to protect the world's forests, fisheries, wetlands, wildlife and other precious natural resources."

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