Big pharma deeds come under fire

By Tim King

Date: 27/01/05

The world's pharmaceutical companies suffered severe damage to their public image a few years ago because of Africa's public health problems. At best they were accused of ignoring the problems, at worst of profiteering.

Campaigners held that they were sheltering behind agreements on intellectual property rights (TRIPS) to deny the continent cheap drugs.

The complaints against big pharma can still be heard. Unhappiness with the TRIPS agreement persists. 1 January 2005 saw the end of a transition period under TRIPS, which had delayed the application of product patents on some anti-AIDS drugs. Ghana, Lesotho, Malawi and Namibia have all voiced fears at the World Health Organization (WHO) that they would no longer be able to obtain cheaper generic drugs from India. The WHO has in turn warned India not to adopt "unnecessary restrictions".

The non-governmental organisation Médecins Sans Frontières told a European Parliament hearing last week that access to essential medicines would get worse. But Peter Bains of GlaxoSmithKline told the same hearing that "medicines that are currently produced will continue to be available". He defended intellectual property protection as "of critical importance" for research and development of new drugs.

GSK's Chris Strutt, at a European Voice conference on healthcare last week, said that access to medicines was a multi-faceted problem and not just about the drugs industry. "Funding is a huge issue. Political will is a huge issue. The infrastructure of the markets is another." The very low level of available healthcare in many African countries was a major obstacle to administering drugs, he said.

On 1 January 2005 a transition period under TRIPS came to an end, which had delayed the application of product patents on some anti-AIDS drugs. Ghana, Lesotho, Malawi and Namibia all voiced fears at the World Health Organization (WHO) that they would no longer be able to obtain cheaper generic drugs from India. The WHO in turn warned India not to adopt 'unnecessary restrictions'.