Newsday - November 9, 2001
Laurie Garrett, Staff Writer

At issue is the organization's crucial Trade Related Intellectual Property agreement, or TRIP, which affects worldwide patent protections for medicines.

Protesters are demanding sweeping changes in the agreement to allow rival generic manufacturers, on a limited basis, to sell discount versions of patented drugs for a host of diseases in poor countries. However, the pharmaceutical industry opposes such steps, arguing that without a guarantee of high returns on their research, they can't fund work on future medicines.

"The very same Senate that threatened African nations with sanctions if they dared disregard patent laws on HIV/AIDS drugs has announced it will disregard the Bayer AG patent on the anthrax drug Cipro," said Mwaganu wa Kaggia, president of the Philadelphia-based Kenya Children's AIDS Project.

"But while anthrax is potentially very dangerous," he added, "its danger is nothing compared with the daily deaths from HIV/AIDS in Africa."

Two weeks ago, Tommy Thompson, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, successfully negotiated Bayer's asking price for Cipro down from a standard cost of $4.67 per pill to 95 cents. This discount was achieved, in large part, because Canada threatened to purchase patent-violating generic forms of the drug and Thompson hinted the United States might follow suit.

The activists are especially upset because this week, while Americans are focused on anthrax and the threat of bioterrorism, Congress slashed its previously committed allocation for the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria from nearly $1 billion to be paid into the fund in 2002-03 down to $190 million.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) this week is leading 70 members of the House and Senate in protest, asking that President George W. Bush set aside a $1.2 billion HIV/AIDS allocation for the Global Fund.

"The U.S. has responded with great urgency to the attacks of September 11, but we and the world have yet to mobilize to combat AIDS, the worst public health emergency in half a millennium," Leahy said in a press release last week.

But Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) said it was highly unlikely that additional funds for HIV/AIDS or other infectious diseases can be found amid political concern about bioterrorism.

Prior to Sept. 11, there was great optimism among AIDS scientists and physicians that a serious global financial commitment to slowing the spread of HIV in Africa, in particular, was finally being realized in the epidemic's 20th year. Since Sept. 11, however, UN officials have told Newsday that they fear the entire fund is in jeopardy. All of this puts the Doha WTO meeting in especially stark relief.

In preparation for the meeting, pharmaceutical firm representatives gathered in London Monday under the aegis of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations. George Poste, former head of research for SmithKline, warned then that, "the issue of AIDS drug pricing, the Canadian government's wish to impose compulsory licensing on cirpofloxacin [Cipro] and the recently negotiated U.S. deal with Bayer are symptoms of a rather slippery slope that could all too easily overtake a broader product portfolio."

But there are signs the Bush administration is prepared to reverse long-standing Republican support for TRIP, offering concessions in Doha today.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick released copies of a new draft TRIP accord he will present to WTO that suggests two key changes.

First, the United States agrees to a moratorium on lawsuits and other actions taken against patent-violating nations that have unusually high HIV rates, such as South Africa. And more importantly, Zoellick will tell WTO that the United States is willing to delay by a decade full implementation of pharmaceutical patent provisions on TRIP. Under TRIP, drug companies would have 20-year worldwide patents beginning Jan. 1, 2006. Zoellick is willing to delay the start of two- decade patents until 2016.

At the same time, the pharmaceutical industry's two main lobbyist groups have stepped up their efforts on Capitol Hill, working hard this week to draw attention to a study appearing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, authored by Harvard University's Amir Attaran and Lee Gillespie-White.

In a survey of AIDS-related patented drugs, the researchers found that of the 53 African nations studied, only 3 drugs have patents. Therefore, the study said, "patent law are not a major barrier to treatment access in and of themselves."

The real barriers, the study suggested, were such things as poverty, lack of health infrastructure, tariffs and taxes, and national medical regulations.

011109
ND011101

Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 2001. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.

AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All information contained on this website, including information relating to health conditions, products, and treatments, is for informational purposes only. It is often presented in summary or aggregate form. It is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or other medical professionals. Always discuss treatment options with a doctor who specializes in treating HIV.

Copyright ©1980, 2001. AEGiS. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content. .