Commission to backtrack on cheap drugs for poor countries

By David Cronin

Date: 22/09/05

The European Commission is likely to alter a proposal on providing affordable medicines to countries with public health crises following MEPs' complaints that the scheme is too narrow in scope.

Next week (29 September), the European Parliament is to endorse a report critical of the Commission's plan for waiving patents on drugs needed to treat people with AIDS and other major diseases.

Drafted by Belgian Liberal Johan Van Hecke, the report argues that it is wrong that the scheme would only apply to drugs destined for the 148 countries in the World Trade Organization (WTO). "It makes no sense from a public health perspective to limit the application of the system to WTO members," said Van Hecke. "Whether a country is a WTO member or not does not constitute a valid criterion for allowing or not exports of low-priced drugs to address public health needs."

Van Hecke's remarks echo those contained in a study requested by the Parliament from Carlos Carrera, an Argentine lawyer and economist. His paper, which was published earlier this year, contended that discrimination between countries may contravene international human rights law and leave Russia, a non-WTO country, without the means to address its burgeoning AIDS crisis.

A Commission official handling the dossier said that his institution would be "in favour" of extending the scheme to countries outside the WTO and will probably respond positively to the amendment that Van Hecke suggested.

Originally put forward by Pascal Lamy, the former trade commissioner, the proposal is aimed at implementing a 2003 WTO decision. Reached shortly before the failed ministerial conference in Cancun, Mexico, that decision set out the circumstances under which countries that struggle to make enough medicines for their citizens could import copied or 'generic' versions of drugs under patent.

The Van Hecke report also complains about a provision in the Commission's proposal requiring authorities seeking to import cheap drugs to ask for authorisation from the patent-holder for doing so and then prove that attempts were unsuccessful "within a reasonable period of time". Van Hecke believes that wording is too vague and could leave import licenses open to protracted negotiations and legal challenges. He recommended that a maximum limit of 30 days should be set for such discussions, except in cases of national emergency.

But the Commission source said that the wording in the proposal reflected the "standard language" of WTO decisions.

A representative of the pharmaceutical industry said that it would not be opposed to extending the scheme to non-WTO members.

The generics industry has warned, however, that the scheme proposed by the Commission could prove too unwieldy for it to provide cheap drugs to poor countries.

Article reports that the European Commission was likely to alter a proposal on providing affordable medicines to countries with public health crises following MEPs' complaints that the scheme was too narrow in scope. The European Parliament was to endorse a report critical of the European Commission's plan for waiving patents on drugs needed to treat people with AIDS and other major diseases on 29 September 2005. Drafted by Belgian Liberal Johan Van Hecke, the report argued that it was wrong that the scheme would only apply to drugs destined for the 148 countries in the World Trade Organization (WTO).