Associated Press - Monday, November 25, 2002
Clare Nullis, Associated Press Writer

Diplomats entering the WTO headquarters were confronted with health activists wheeling a "pneumonia victim" out of an ambulance to illustrate the plight of the sick and poor who cannot afford drugs taken for granted by the rich.

"Rich countries pushed by the pharmaceutical giants, continue to block any meaningful solution by insisting on unreasonable restrictions to the legitimate right to health of hundreds of millions of poor people," said the British aid group Oxfam, which organized the demonstration with Medecins Sans Frontiers, also known as Doctors Without Borders.

At issue are the WTO rules on Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights. A ministerial meeting in Qatar one year ago recognized the right of WTO members to override patents on expensive Western drugs and make the products themselves when public health is at stake.

However, drugs made under such "compulsory licensing" were to be used only domestically and not exported. That meant a country without a drug industry was no better off because it could neither make the drugs nor buy them from another country.

Developing countries, led by South Africa and Brazil, reluctantly accepted the declaration rather than cause the collapse of the bid to launch a wider trade round. In return, the WTO's TRIPS council was instructed to solve the problem by the end of this year.

Trade ministers made limited progress toward a compromise at a meeting in Sydney earlier this month, but left the detailed legal drafting to negotiators in Geneva.

TRIPS Council chairman, Eduardo Perez Motta of Mexico, wants to get agreement this week because the council is not scheduled to meet again before the end of the year.

Although there is general agreement that the least developed countries should be given access to cheap generic drugs, there is no consensus on whether this right should be automatically bestowed on wealthier developing countries such as Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan.

There is also no agreement on whether to drop the usual patent protection just for specific diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria - as the United States wants - or for all diseases including cancer and diabetes. Another difference is whether the more relaxed rules should cover public health in general or be restricted to emergencies like epidemics.

A further sticking point is on which legal mechanism should be selected from the WTO's horrendously complicated set of rules to implement the agreement.

MSF campaigner Ellen d'Hoen said that health activists were anxious for a deal to be reached by the end of the year rather than being bogged down in wider trade talks which were launched last year in Doha.

"But this should not be at the expense of developing countries being bounced into something against their interests," she said.

The United States, in particular, and its pharmaceutical industry argue that it needs safeguards to protect markets for drugs which cost millions of dollars to develop otherwise there will be no more incentive for manufacturers to invest in crucial research.

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