Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Reuters NewMedia - Thursday, November 21, 2002
As World Trade Organization members strive for consensus on the issue, "one rule we should all follow ... is to make sure we are doing nothing to undercut the incentive for pharmaceutical companies worldwide to focus on solving these diseases," U.S. Commerce Undersecretary Grant Aldonas said.
Last year, in an action that helped launch a new round of world trade talks, WTO members agreed they had the flexibility under international trade rules to license domestic manufacturers to make cheap versions of patented drugs in response to emergencies or a public health crisis such as HIV/AIDS.
Aldonas told reporters the United States would resist efforts to go beyond the kind of public health crises that WTO agreed last year in Doha, Qatar, should be addressed.
"In addition to that, I think you have to include safeguards against the potential abuse of the process" so that drug companies will continue to have the profit incentive to develop new life-saving drugs, Aldonas said.
"The companies are on board with trying to be helpful, but they need the safeguards so they can stay in the market and continue to be helpful," he said.
Last year's agreement left unresolved how to ensure poor countries that do not have a pharmaceutical industry would have access to generic life-saving drugs.
The issue has pitted drug companies in the United States and Europe that spend heavily on research and development against generic drug manufacturers in Brazil and India.
The United States has proposed allowing poor countries to license companies in another developing country to manufacture generic drugs, subject to certain restrictions.
WTO Director General Supachai Panitchpakdi has said countries must reach an agreement on the issue by an end-of-the-year deadline to keep the overall WTO negotiations on track to their scheduled conclusion by December 2004.
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