The Doha Resolution

Thailand's ill see benefits from 'compulsory licensing'
Robert Weissman
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
April 4, 2008

The rationale for Sally Pipes' fanciful opinion piece ("Thailand's misuse of `compulsory licensing' allowed corrupt officials to steal millions," March 21) would have been a lot clearer to readers if she had revealed that her think tank is funded by the pharmaceutical industry. Her organization, the Pacific Research Institute, has received more than $1 million from Eli Lilly since 2000. Several members of its board are tied to the industry through investment funds or lobby shops.

Pipes derides Thailand for issuing compulsory licenses on several AIDS, heart disease and cancer drugs. A compulsory license is a lawful government authorization of generic competition for products while they remain on patent.

Untruthfully, Pipes says Thai patients have not seen benefits as a result. In fact, the Thai compulsory licenses have lowered the price of an important HIV/AIDS drug (brand name: Kaletra) by about three-quarters, enabling the government to triple the number of people receiving this life-saving treatment. More will go on the treatment as need grows and generic competition continues to reduce prices. The generic version of a heart-disease drug (brand-name: Plavix) is one-seventieth the cost of the brand-name product, which will enable the government to offer the drug in the public health system. Previously, it has been unavailable.

DenverPost.com
Rationing life-saving medicines in Thailand
By Robert Weissman
04/02/2008

Denver Post readers might reasonably have been confused by Professor Kristina Lybecker's astounding claims in a March 18 online guest commentary ("Compulsory drug licensing disastrous"). Professor Lybecker alleged that Thailand's efforts to lower the price of life-saving medications and make them available to poor people would have a "disastrous effect on public health worldwide."

Readers might have been able to put this remarkable and misguided argument in context if Professor Lybecker had revealed her extensive financial entanglements with Big Pharma.

Urge Your Members of Congress:
Don’t Trade Away Global Access to Medicines!
Co-sponsor the Doha Resolution! (H.Res 525/S.Res241)

During the month of April, groups & individuals around the country will urge the United States Congress to support a new direction in U.S. trade policy that promotes developing country focused medical innovation and access to life-saving medicines.

WE NEED YOU to take action on “innovation and access” across the country by organizing your own “Spring into Health Day” anytime this April, when you will call, write or meet with your Senators and Representatives to ask them to co-sponsor the “Doha Resolution” (House Resolution 525/ Senate Resolution 241).

The Doha Resolutions (H.Res 525/S.Res 241) call on Congress to reaffirm the right of developing countries to provide affordable generic copies of lifesaving medicines to their citizens, and to acknowledge the importance of overcoming barriers to the development of new medical products for diseases that primarily affect people in developing countries.

Please get together with your student group, community organization, club, co-workers, family members or religious community to plan an event today!

To participate please contact Sarah Rimmington, Essential Action, srimmington@essentialinformation.org or 202-387-8030.

Tell Congress not to prioritize Big Pharma's narrow commercial concerns over public health interests when negotiating trade agreements!

A poster, lobby meeting tip sheet, tips and sample letters for letter-writing campaigns, phone scripts for call-in days, and background materials on the Doha Resolution, are posted below.
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Stronger Patent Protections Will Take Lives, Not Save Them
Written by Robert Weissman
River Cities' Reader (Iowa)
Wednesday, 19 March 2008

The reason for Peter Pitts' overheated rhetoric in a recent River Cities' Reader guest commentary ("We're Taking Your Medicine, Literally," Issue 674, March 5-11, 2008) would have been a lot clearer if he had disclosed his multiple entanglements with the brand-name pharmaceutical industry.

Mr. Pitts alleged that Thailand, Brazil, and other developing-country governments have stolen patented inventions from brand-name pharmaceutical companies.

What these countries have actually done is issue compulsory licenses - authorizations for generic competition, while products remain on patent - that have enabled sick people to get life-saving medicines they would otherwise be denied.

Here is what Mr. Pitts did not explain.

Compulsory licenses the right medicine for prescriptions in developing countries
By Robert Weissman
Published at South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Ft. Lauderdale/Broward County, Florida)
March 18, 2008


The reason for Peter Pitts' overheated rhetoric in a recent South Florida Sun-Sentinel op-ed ("We're Taking Your Medicine, Literally," March 11) would have been a lot clearer if he had disclosed to readers his multiple entanglements with the brand-name pharmaceutical industry.

Mr. Pitts alleged that Thailand, Brazil and other developing country governments have stolen patented inventions from brand-name pharmaceutical companies. What these countries have actually done is issue compulsory licenses — lawful authorizations for generic competition, while products remain on patent — that have enabled sick people to get lifesaving medicines they would otherwise be denied.

Here is what Mr. Pitts did not explain:

An interview with Essential Action's Sarah Rimmington on global access to medicines aired on WRVU 91.1 FM in Nashville Tennessee on January 7, 2008.

In the interview with Project Question’s Lonnie Atkinson, Sarah explains how international trade agreements governing patent rules and the brand-name pharmaceutical industry work to restrict the introduction of low-cost generic copies of life-saving drugs in the developing world. The widespread lack of generic versions of many life-saving treatments is a significant contributing factor to the limited access poor people in developing countries have to them.

You can listen to the entire interview here.

October 30, 2007
For Immediate Release
For More Information, contact: Robert Weissman, Essential Action, (202) 387-8030

In response to a request from Senator Edward Kennedy and Representative Henry Waxman, the Government Accountability Office today has issued a report on U.S. trade policy and access to medicines.

The GAO report highlights in some detail the many ways that the Bush administration has violated the Doha provision in the 2002 Trade Promotion Authority legislation. The Act designated respecting the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health as a principal negotiating objective related to intellectual property.

"It is time for the Bush administration to stop defending Big Pharma's interests in extended patent monopolies, at the expense of public health," says Robert Weissman, director of Essential Action, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that aims to expand access to essential medicines. "The life-and-death consequences are just too high."

"A new policy should have advancing public health, rather protecting large corporate contributors, as its starting point," said Weissman. "From there, it's easy to see what to do: promote generic competition — including but not limited for the AIDS drugs that the President's own AIDS program is purchasing — stop pushing for higher patent and drug monopoly standards in developing countries, and explore new ways to promote both innovation and affordability."
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September 25, 2007
For Immediate Release
For More Information, contact: Sarah Rimmington or Robert Weissman, Essential Action, 202-387-8030

Over 100 health, faith-based, consumer, development, labor and fair trade organizations have urged U.S. senators and representatives to co-sponsor S. Res 241 and H. Res 525. In a letter, the groups urged support for the resolutions, which call on the United States to re-affirm its commitment to the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health to promote both access to medicines in developing countries, and the innovation of new medical technologies.

The resolutions were introduced by Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Representative Tom Allen of Maine.

Organizations endorsing the letter include The American Medical Student Association, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, Essential Action, Global AIDS Alliance, Health GAP, Knowledge Ecology International, Oxfam America, Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, Sojourners/Call to Renewal, The United Methodist Church, United Steelworkers, and U.S. PIRG.
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by Ed Silverman
Published at pharmalot.com

More than 100 different organizations - representing consumers, labor, fair trade, health advocacy and religious groups - are banding together to urge Congress to support resolutions calling for the US to reaffirm its commitment to international treaties that promote access to medicines and innovations in new medical technologies in developing countries.

Specifically, the groups (you can see a list below) are referring to the Doha declaration of TRIPS, the trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights. (For a quick primer, look at this). A House resolution was introduced by Tom Allen, a Democrat from Maine, and Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Ohio, introduced a resolution in the Senate.

“In developing countries, the price of medicines is often a life-and-death matter,” says the letter to Congress. “For example, generic competition for the older first-generation AIDS drugs has reduced their price in developing countries by more than 98 percent, which was critical to the massive scale-up in AIDS treatment seen over the past five years. However, most newer, second-generation treatments are under patent and current treatment levels…will not be sustainable unless much cheaper generic versions become available.”
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