San Francisco Chronicle - Wednesday, November 7, 2001

This month, however, the administration is doing the opposite, blocking attempts to create a permanent exemption for patent laws on drugs to treat the AIDS pandemic, which has killed millions in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

In negotiations at the World Trade Organization, the administration is taking a hard line against a proposal by India, Brazil and African countries to allow countries to produce or import generic versions of drugs to treat AIDS, malaria and other endemic diseases.

The proposal is crucial for poor nations that are unable to pay the pharmaceutical corporations' licensed prices, which reach more than $10,000 per year per person for anti-AIDS drugs. Generic versions are as much as 95 percent cheaper -- the difference between life and death for vast numbers of people.

U.S. diplomats, wary of treading on the generous profits of U.S.-based drug manufacturers, complain that the poor nations' proposal would essentially destroy intellectual property protections in developing nations.

The Bush administration -- and the Clinton administration before it -- have taken some well-deserved knocks for this profits-before-people stance. Now, during preparations for a WTO summit meeting that starts Friday in Qatar, Washington officials are proposing a five-year exemption for the 40 poorest nations from WTO limits on production of generic drugs.

But critics rightly call the U.S. proposal a cynical trap, noting that it would not allow poor nations, most of whom do not have the capacity to manufacture drugs, to import them from nations such as India and Brazil -- which would be barred from producing them.

So where are the generic drugs supposed to come from? The Bush administration has no answer.

The progress made in this country against AIDS is due mainly to abundant resources and enlightened thinking.

Ten years ago today, basketball star Magic Johnson disclosed he was HIV positive. Since then, he has used his celebrity to promote government and private funding of AIDS research while setting a remarkable personal example of how a combination of drugs, exercise and healthy eating habits can help fend off the onset of AIDS.

There is no dispute that AIDS is a global crisis and that certain drugs can help enhance and extend lives. It's time for this country's policies to reflect those realities.
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