Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Bangkok (Agenzia Fides) - Public health and HIV/AIDS activists from the developing world are seeking to break the monopoly over drugs held by pharmaceutical giants through a new global campaign designed to influence international debate over the issue.
Formulated at the end of a three-day meeting, last week, which brought some 200 participants from 20 countries to the Thai capital, the campaign seeks ‘’a new way out of the current patent system; one that will encourage innovation of new drugs and access for all,’’ says one of the organisers of the International Conference on Compulsory Licensing: Innovation and Access for All. ‘’What we have now is innovation controlled by the pharmaceutical industry that lets them have a monopoly on drugs.’’
The intention is to find ways to meet both the requests of the major world laboratories which produce patented medicines and the needs of the poor, which because of the high costs, have limited or no access to treatment for AIDS.
The final text will be drafted by the World Health Organisation's Intergovernmental Working Group On Public Health, Innovation And Intellectual Property, which recently held a second panel discussion on the issue.
“ ’At the heart of the plan is finding an optimal way to boost research and development of affordable healthcare products so people, particularly in the developing countries, can receive treatment for diseases, with an emphasis on neglected conditions including tuberculosis, malaria and HIV/AIDS,’’, states a background note by Intellectual Property Watch, a Geneva-based on-line publication.
Pharmaceutical multi-national corporations (MNCs) have contributed marginally towards developing new drugs to help the world’s poor. ‘’Only 10 percent of the total global investment in pharmaceutical research was directed towards neglected diseases affecting 90 percent of the world’s population,’’ noted Jakkrit Kuanpoth, from the law faculty of the University of Wollongong in Sydney, Australia.
Apaper by Dr. Mira Shiva, from the non-governmental Health Action International. Shiva said that between 1975 and 2004, there were 1,556 new active ingredients for drugs developed by the pharma giants but only 18 were for tropical diseases.
The activists are bracing for a counter campaign from the pharmaceutical industry, which presides over an estimated 650 billion US dollar global market, of which all of southern Asia and south-east Asia account for only a 1.3 percent share.
Thailand emerged as a leader in the developing world to take advantage of global trading rules to secure cheaper, generic drugs for public health emergencies such as HIV/AIDS. Over the past year, Bangkok has used provisions available under the trade related intellectual property rights (TRIPS) to issue compulsory licences (CL) to break the patents for three drugs, two to prolong the life of people with HIV and a blood-thinner for heart patients. The right for developing countries to grant CLs or pursue parallel imports of generic drugs were approved by at a World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial meeting in Doha, in 2001.
The country is one that has been among the worst hit since the pandemic began in the region, with over 600,000 infected with HIV at present and some 300,000 having died due to AIDS over past two decades. Currently, an estimated 140,000 Thais receive the first-line of ARVs. (AP) (28/11//2007Agenzia Fides; Righe:40; Parole:478)
