AEGiS-WSJ: Drug Patents Draw Scrutiny As Bush Makes African Visit Wall Street JournalImportant note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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Drug Patents Draw Scrutiny As Bush Makes African Visit

Wall Street Journal - July 9, 2003
Michael Schroeder, Staff Reporter

WASHINGTON -- In a five-nation African tour this week, President Bush is trumpeting his $15 billion program to fight the continent's AIDS epidemic. But that program's gains could be undercut by a separate U.S. effort to impose strict drug-patent protections that make AIDS drugs more expensive and harder to obtain.

The Commerce Department is helping shape patent laws in developing countries such as Nigeria -- where Mr. Bush will visit Saturday -- that go beyond global standards in protecting drug makers. The U.S. Trade Representative's office is seeking similarly strict protections in developing nations world-wide.

While President Bush is flaunting his program to help pay for drugs to treat AIDS in the near term in Africa, "there are many ways that the Bush administration has contravened the letter and spirit" of other global efforts to give needy countries better drug access, says Asia Russell, international policy coordinator at the Health Global Access Project, a nongovernmental activist group.
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