Bush blocks deal allowing cheap drugs for world's poor
Charlotte Denny in Geneva
Wednesday February 19, 2003
The Guardian
George Bush's close links with the drugs industry were last
night blamed for the failure of talks in Geneva aimed at securing
access to cheap medicines for developing countries.
Delegates at the World Trade Organisation expressed frustration
after the US again rejected a deal that would have loosened
global patent rules to enable poor countries to import cheap
copies of desperately needed drugs.
"We believe that governments should maintain their distance
and should not be directed by pressure groups," one EU trade
official said.
Negotiators said a solution to the deadlock lay in America's
hands. "The pharmaceuticals lobby is running the show in
Washington," one development activist said.
The WTO's 144 members agreed more than a year ago that
countries could override patent rules in the interests of public
health and license local producers to copy essential drugs. But
they failed to spell out how countries with no manufacturing
capacity would gain access to life-saving medicines.
A draft accord on imports was rejected by the US last
December after lobbying from drugs firms, which fear that
relaxing the rules to allow poor countries to import copycat
drugs will help generics manufacturers in India and Brazil to
steal their markets.
America's counter proposal, limiting imports to drugs for a
shortlist of diseases including HIV/Aids, malaria and
tuberculosis, was rejected by developing countries as too
restrictive.
Eduardo Perez Motta, the Mexican ambassador to the WTO,
who chairs the drugs talks, admitted the organisation's
reputation had been damaged by the deadlock.
A Brazilian proposal, to let the World Health Organisation
decide which countries were allowed to import copycat drugs,
was not even discussed yesterday.
Last week a South African plan that would have required
countries to declare a national emergency also failed to win over
the US drug industry.
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