Glenys tells Lamy: stand up to drug companies

Date: 08/03/01

By Simon Taylor

TRADE Commissioner Pascal Lamy is under pressure to urge multinational drugs companies to stop fighting efforts to cut the price of life-saving medicines for some of the world's poorest people.

UK Socialist MEP Glenys Kinnock wants Lamy to back German development minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, who this week called for 39 pharmaceutical firms to abandon their legal challenge to a South African law designed to lower the price of patent-protected HIV and AIDS medicines.

The firms include the five leading companies in the field: GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Roche, and Boehringer Ingelheim.

"Lamy and everyone else have to ask themselves what the World Trade Organisation is there for - to represent its members or the profits of pharmaceutical companies," said Kinnock, speaking from outside the court in Pretoria where the case was being heard.

Kinnock, a leading member of the European Parliament's development committee, said she would be lobbying other member states to support the German minister. "There's nothing which would make Lamy's life easier than if other member states agreed," she said.

The MEP warned Lamy that he would find it difficult to win support from major developing countries for a new round of WTO talks unless he listened to their concerns over access to life-saving medicines. "The EU and US will have to understand that the three big developing countries - South Africa, Brazil and India - will be holding the new round hostage over their right to buy generic drugs," she said.

This week, a South African judge adjourned the case brought against the government by some world's biggest drugs companies until 18 April to give the firms time to prepare arguments for their legal challenge under WTO rules.

The drugs firms argue that the South African law breaks commitments made by Pretoria under WTO rules designed to protect intellectual property, known as Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, or TRIPS for short.

A local AIDS action group and two northern European campaign groups, Oxfam and Médècins sans Frontières, led protests against the companies in South Africa.

But Lamy has so far resisted appeals from campaign groups to condemn the court action. Speaking at a trade and poverty conference in Brussels this week, Lamy said it was not Commission policy to comment directly on legal cases but stated that he believed that the existing TRIPS agreement balances the interests of industry with the medical needs of developing countries. "

We would not have medicines if it was not for intellectual property rights unless you only want to rely on public funding," he said. "We need IP but there is an exception to TRIPS on the grounds of national emergencies." Lamy added that the Commission has been able to influence industry to consider differential pricing, which was "one of the solutions to the problems" faced by developing countries.

Oxfam policy director Justin Forsyth claimed this week that more than 400,000 South Africans had died of AIDS and related diseases since the drugs companies launched their legal case.

A spokesman for the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) denied that the pharmaceutical industry was blocking efforts to provide lower cost drugs to sick people in developing countries. "The court case is not geared to hinder access to essential medicines," said EPFIA public-relations manager Christophe de Callatay. "It's a matter of principle. It's about protecting IP from arbitrary seizure. It's about giving the health minister the right to override patent rights." He pointed out that the industry was making its own efforts to lower the cost of drugs in developing countries, saying that companies had offered to bring down the price of some medicines to the level of generic drugs. she would be lobbying other member states to support the German minister. "There's nothing which would make Lamy's life easier than if other member states agreed," she said.

The MEP warned Lamy that he would find it difficult to win support from developing countries for a new round of WTO talks unless he listened to their concerns. "The EU and US will have to understand that the three big developing countries - South Africa, Brazil and India - will be holding the new round hostage over their right to buy generic drugs," she said.

This week, a South African judge adjourned the case against the government until 18 April to give the drugs firms time to prepare arguments.

The drug companies argue that the South African law breaks commitments designed to protect their patents, known as Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, or TRIPS for short.

Campaign groups have protested strongly against the firms in South Africa, but Lamy has resisted appeals to condemn the court action.

Speaking at a trade and poverty conference in Brussels this week, he said it was not Commission policy to comment on legal cases but stated that he believed that the existing TRIPS agreement balances the interests of industry with the medical needs of developing countries.

"We would not have medicines if it was not for intellectual property rights unless you only want to rely on public funding - and there is an exception to TRIPS on the grounds of national emergencies." Lamy said the Commission has encouraged industry to consider differential pricing, which was "one of the solutions to the problems" faced by developing countries.

A spokesman for the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) denied that the industry was blocking efforts to provide lower cost drugs to developing countries. "The court case is not geared to hinder access to essential medicines," said its public relations manager Christophe de Callatay. "It's about protecting IP from arbitrary seizure."

Meanwhile, US drugs giant Merck - one of the firms involved in the court action - said yesterday it would sell two anti-AIDS medicines at no profit in developing countries. The move is also being seen as a means to protect its market from manufacturers of cheaper generic treatments.

Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy is under pressure to urge multinational drugs companies to stop fighting efforts to cut the price of life-saving medicines for some of the world's poorest people.