Month: August 2008

In the latest issue of the Global Access to Medicines Bulletin, you can read about Colombian civil society’s efforts to make generic versions of an important treatment for HIV/AIDS available. You can also learn how a small group of countries are quietly negotiating a new international treaty — known as the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) — that may interfere with efforts to promote generic and price competition in the pharmaceutical industry.

Click here to subscribe to the Global Access to Medicines Bulletin.

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A text version of the bulletin appears after the continuation of this post.
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Essential Action
Global Access to Medicines Bulletin
Issue No. 6, August 7, 2008

Colombian Health Organizations Seek Generic AIDS Drug

On July 16, Colombian public health and HIV/AIDS organizations stepped up their efforts to facilitate access to an important HIV/AIDS treatment by filing requests with the Colombian Government for an open compulsory license on lopinavir/ritonavir (brand-name Kaletra). [1] If issued, the compulsory license would permit the introduction of significantly more affordable generic versions of the drug throughout the country in exchange for royalty payments to the patent holder, Chicago-based Abbott
Laboratories.

The compulsory license request comes more than three months after the civil society groups first requested a voluntary license directly from Abbott. [2] To date, the company has not responded to the groups’ request.

HIV/AIDS is a serious health problem in Colombia. Official statistics show that from 1983 through 2007, approximately 57,500 people were diagnosed with the disease, though the true number of cases is estimated to be closer to 171,500. The groups that initiated the compulsory license request estimate that about 23,000 of the people living with HIV/AIDS in Colombia currently require antiretroviral (ARV) treatment, but only about 12,000 receive it. HIV/AIDS is the third leading cause of death for men between the ages of 15 and 44 in Colombia.

“My government must not let its people die when there exists a simple, affordable solution to helping people with HIV/AIDS live normal lives,” says Francisco Rossi of IFARMA-HAI (Health Action International), one of the Colombian organizations that initiated the compulsory license requests.

Lopinavir/ritonavir (LPV/r) is an important “second-generation” treatment for HIV/AIDS. In Colombia, only the brand-name version of the product (Kaletra) is available to patients. Kaletra is so expensive that it is unaffordable for much of the population. In a country with an average income of US$3250, Abbott sells Kaletra to public sector suppliers for approximately $1683 per patient, per year, and to private sector suppliers for as much as $4449. However, generic LPV/r is currently available in both Peru and Bolivia for less than $800 per patient, per year. It will also soon be available throughout Latin America for as little as $550 as a result of a recent Clinton Foundation deal. Abbott charges patients in Colombia more for Kaletra than it charges other countries in the region, where the company sells it for as little as $1000 per patient, per year.

Colombian civil society estimates that with competition the government alone could save well over $1 million annually. Civil society organizations suggested that these savings could be invested in many possible ways, such as scaling up the numbers of patients receiving HIV/AIDS treatment and strengthening Colombia’s health system. [3] Patients and private insurers buy significantly larger quantities of drugs than the government, and thus the cost savings resulting from the introduction of generic competition for LPV/r would also be much larger for them.

The Colombian government can legally issue compulsory licenses on pharmaceutical patents under World Trade Organization and Andean Community rules. Under domestic law, the Colombian government is obliged to reply to the compulsory license request within a reasonable amount of time. Colombian civil society organizations will be meeting with government officials to discuss the request in coming weeks.

Meanwhile, at the International AIDS Conference in Mexico City yesterday, health advocates from around the world demonstrated and released a letter in support of the Colombian civil society request. [4] “Issuing a compulsory license in this case will help promote access to medicines for all,” wrote the groups. The high price charged by Abbott, the patent holder for this medicine, constitutes a barrier to access and hinders efforts to make antiretroviral treatment available in Colombia to all who need it.” [5]

Web links
[1]http://www.essentialaction.org/access/index.php?/archives/166-Colombia-Health-Organizations-file-for-compulsory-license-on-lopinavirritonavir.html
[2] http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/ip-health/2008-April/012527.html
[3]http://www.essentialaction.org/access/index.php?/archives/170-Health-Groups-Worldwide-Support-Colombian-Call-for-Compulsory-License-on-Kaletra.html
[4]http://www.essentialaction.org/access/index.php?/archives/171-Palm-Beach-Post-A-Tug-of-War,-A-Funeral,-and-Drug-Prices.html
[5]http://www.essentialaction.org/access/index.php?/archives/170-Health-Groups-Worldwide-Support-Colombian-Call-for-Compulsory-License-on-Kaletra.html

Secret Treaty May Interfere with Generic Medicines

A new international treaty now under negotiation, known as the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), may interfere with efforts to promote generic and price competition for the pharmaceutical industry, according to public health campaigners.

The United States, the European Union, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand are now negotiating ACTA. [1]

The text remains secret, but the treaty aims to establish a heightened common international standard for border controls and copyright, trademark and patent enforcement.

Over the last couple years, the brand-name pharmaceutical industry and its allies have increasingly called attention to the issue of counterfeit medicines. Industry, the U.S. government and the World Health Organization have implemented a daunting array of projects to address pharmaceutical counterfeits. ACTA would extend far beyond these initiatives, however.

Public health advocates say that counterfeits are a legitimate public health concern, but a subset of a bigger problem: substandard medicines, in both rich and poor countries. A public health agenda would focus on the quality of medicines, not narrow patent and trademark issues, they say. [2]

Pharma, however, is interested in the narrow focus on patent and trademark issues. Arguments from Pharma and its allies about counterfeiting blur the lines between fakes and generics — undermining public confidence in generics. [3]

Pharma also uses counterfeits as a justification to oppose reimportation of pharmaceuticals (commonly known as parallel trade or parallel importation outside of the United States). Because reimported drugs move outside of brand-name firms’ control, and may be repackaged, the argument runs, there is no certainty that a reimported pharmaceutical is legitimate.

Because the ACTA text remains secret, exactly what it contains is unknown. But PhRMA, the U.S. brand-name drug industry association, has suggested that the treaty should impose liability on manufacturers of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), if those APIs are used to make counterfeits — a liability system that may make API manufacturers reluctant to sell to legal generic drug makers, and thereby significantly damage the functioning of the legal generic pharmaceutical industry. Other industry recommendations would interfere with drug reimportation.

The G8’s recent Declaration on the World Economy implored negotiators to conclude ACTA negotiations this year. [4]

For more on ACTA, see:
http://www.keionline.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=187
http://www.publicknowledge.org/issues/acta
https://secure.eff.org/site/Advocacy?JServSessionIdr009=m5722xgyi2.app2a&cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=383
http://ipjustice.org/wp/campaigns/acta/

Web links:
[1]http://www.ustr.gov/Document_Library/Press_Releases/2007/October/Ambassador_Schwab_Announces_US_Will_Seek_New_Trade_Agreement_to_Fight_Fakes.html
[2]http://www.essentialaction.org/access/index.php?/archives/131-Comments-on-Proposed-Anti-Counterfeiting-Treaty.html#extended
[3] See, for example:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/18/AR2008071802446.html
[4] http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/07/20080708-2.html

Essential Action is a public health and corporate accountability group located in Washington, DC. Essential Action’s Access to Medicines Project has worked on global access to medicines issues for more than a decade.

For more information on our work go to www.essentialaction.org/access/
Published by Essential Action’s Access to Medicines Project
P.O. Box 19405, Washington, DC, 20036, USA
Tel: (1) (202) 387-8030
www.essentialaction.org/access/

Editors: Sarah Rimmington [email protected]
Robert Weissman [email protected]

To subscribe to the free Global Access to Medicines e-Bulletin go to:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1678/t/5144/signUp.jsp?key=2959

A Tug-of-War, A Funeral, and Drug Prices

By Antigone Barton | Wednesday, August 6, 2008, 03:05 PM
Palm Beach Post
[Intenational AIDS Conference Blog]

MEXICO CITY — This morning we had a funeral procession at the International AIDS conference, complete with a black-draped coffin followed by sobbing, wailing, black-robed people wearing ghastly white masks and carrying signs chastising pharmaceutical company Abbott for causing the death of their loved one, “Por Falta Katetra.” (Of Lack of Kaletra)

Kaletra (generically it is called lopinavir/ritonavir) is one of the best drugs around for AIDS patients, activists say, with few side effects, low resistance build-up, and it doesn’t need to be refrigerated, which is critical in the hot climates where the epidemic has rampaged.

But Abbott keeps it expensive, and that makes sustaining treatment as well as enrolling more patients for treatment difficult. Abbott’s reluctance to negotiate its high prices has kept the company in the sights of treatment access activists for years. Attendees at the 2004 International AIDS Conference in Bangkok still recall how the drug company’s posh booth in the exhibit hall disappeared, suddenly, just one strip of paper left waving pathetically from a remaining support brace.

No one can recall an Abbott booth at the Toronto conference, although the company bought space there, and activists can’t find one this year.

This morning’s funeral however, was followed by an afternoon “tug-of-war,” with patients living with HIV and in need of Kaletra on one side, and the pharmaceutical giant on the other.
This one was designed to draw attention to the situation in Columbia , where the government pays nearly 1,700 a year to treat each patient, although surrounding countries that either buy a generic version of the drug or have negotiated a lower price with Abbott pay half as much or less.

Under international trade law the country could over-ride the drug company’s patent and get a cheaper generic version too, but it hasn’t.

A lower price would mean the ability to treat at least twice as many patients and have more money for other health care demands that, in turn could prevent new infections, says Kaytee Riek of Health GAP (the GAP stands for Global Access Project.)

When only 27 percent of the estimated 10 million people who need treatment for AIDS are getting it, this is a deadly waste, Riek says.

Riek was in Bangkok when the Abbott booth came down, and doesn’t remember if she was involved in that specific effort.

“I did a lot of things,” she sighed.

She was new to activism then, her involvement sparked after a two-week trip at 17 to Africa where she caught Malaria. A five-dollar treatment cured her, of the malaria but left her with a lingering sense of dissatisfaction because she also learned that people who couldn’t afford the cure, or get to it were dying.

“It was so very clear,” she says now, “that there was something wrong when there’s millions of people dying and the cost of keeping them alive is so little.”

She looks tired now, running from protest to protest at this conference, in the midst of a campaign season where she’s raised health access issues across the country.

She doesn’t have anything against Abbott, per se, or any of the other protest targets.

“It’s a good drug,” she says. “It’s just so overpriced.”

Peter Maybarduk, an attorney for the Wash., DC-based Essential Action, a nonprofit that works on health equity issues, wore a suit, tie, shades and waved fistfuls of bills, more tucked behind his ears as he portrayed Abbott, shouting at protesters to “talk to the hand.”

But he says, the responsibility lies with Columbia to issue a compulsory license, a move allowed by international trade law to over-ride the drug company’s patent.

“This is a move demanded by public health needs he says. “Our aim isn’t to target Abbott. Our aim is to increase access to an important AIDS treatment.”

An international coalition of over three-dozen patients’ and public health advocacy groups sent a letter today to representatives of the Colombian government, endorsing Colombian civil society groups’ recent request for an open compulsory license on AIDS medicine lopinavir/ritonavir (marketed by Chicago-based Abbott Laboratories under the trade name Kaletra). The coalition includes groups from six continents, and chapters of such public health stalwarts as Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF, Doctors Without Borders), Health Action International, Health GAP and ACTUP, as well as law programs, medical students and patients’ organizations.

Text of a news release about the letter, and the global sign-on letter itself, follow below.

For Immediate Release
August 6, 2008

International Coalition of Public Health Advocacy Groups Sends Letter to Colombian Government Supporting Kaletra Compulsory License Request from Civil Society

Patients’ groups and allies say open license for lopinavir/ritonavir would promote access to medicines for all

Contacts:
Peter Maybarduk, Essential Action
(at the IAC in México) +52 55 1902-1954
[email protected]

David Morales Alba, Comunicación Positiva
(en México) +52 55 2819-2970
[email protected]

Mexico City, Wednesday, August 6, 2008 — An international coalition of over three-dozen patients’ and public health advocacy groups sent a letter today to representatives of the Colombian government, endorsing Colombian civil society groups’ recent request for an open compulsory license on AIDS medicine lopinavir/ritonavir (marketed by Chicago-based Abbott Laboratories under the trade name Kaletra). The coalition includes groups from six continents, and chapters of such public health stalwarts as Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF, Doctors Without Borders), Health Action International, Health GAP and ACTUP, as well as law programs, medical students and patients’ organizations.

“Issuing a compulsory license in this case will help promote access to medicines for all,” wrote the groups. “Lopinavir/ritonavir is a key medicine in the treatment of HIV/AIDS. The high price charged by Abbott, the patent holder for this medicine, constitutes a barrier to access and hinders efforts to make antiretroviral treatment available in Colombia to all who need it.”

On 16 July, 2008, an alliance of Colombian civil society groups filed a request for their government to issue an open compulsory license on the life-saving anti-retroviral drug lopinavir/ritonavir in order to enable access to generic versions of the drug, which will create competition and lead to more affordable prices. Several months earlier, on 7 April, 2008, Colombian civil society asked Abbott Laboratories directly to voluntarily license its patent, but to date, Abbott has not responded to the groups’ request.

“My government must not let its people die when there exists a simple, affordable solution to helping people with HIV/AIDS live normal lives,” says Francisco Rossi of Colombian NGO IFARMA-Health Action International.

The Colombian government is empowered under the WTO TRIPS Agreement and Andean Community rules to issue compulsory licenses, authorizing generic competition with patented medicines to protect public health, in exchange for a reasonable royalty to the patent holder.

“We stand with our Colombian civil society allies in calling for Colombia to utilize the TRIPS flexibilities available to them. We request that Colombian leaders move forward with this important method of protecting the public health of their constituents”, said Samantha Sitrin of ACTUP Philadelphia.

“The Colombian government must partner with patients, instead of with Abbott, following the example of the many countries that have issued compulsory licenses,” says Mary Carol Jennings from the American Medical Student Association. “This means making generic medications available at low cost to people whose lives depend on them.”

Kaletra currently costs the Colombian public sector approximately US$1683 per patient, per year, and prices for private health organizations reach $4449. Peru and Bolivia, by contrast, pay less than $800 for generic lopinavir/ritonavir. Through a recent accord with the Clinton Foundation, prices in the region could fall to $550. By issuing a compulsory license and allowing generics firms to compete with Abbott’s Kaletra, the Colombian government could save well over US$1million annually. Colombian civil society groups point out that these savings could be invested in scaling up HIV/AIDS treatment and strengthening Colombia’s health system.

Mesa de Organizaciones que trabajan en VIH/SIDA (en Bogotá)
* +57-1-338-4991 * [email protected] *

The civil society letter is pasted below:

To:
Doctor
ALVARO URIBE VELEZ
PRESIDENTE DE LA REPUBLICA DE COLOMBIA
E. S. D.

Doctor
GUSTAVO VALBUENA QUIÑONES
SUPERINTENDENTE DE INDUSTRIA Y COMERCIO
E. S. D.

cc:
Doctor
DIEGO PALACIO BETANCOURT
MINISTRO DE LA PROTECCION SOCIAL
E. S. D.

August 6, 2008

Dear Sirs,

We are organizations from around the world concerned about providing treatment to people with HIV/AIDS, ensuring all people have access to needed medicines, and promoting public health. We write in support of the July 16, 2008 Colombian civil society request for issuance of a compulsory license on the medicine lopinavir/ritonavir (Kaletra).

Under the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) and Andean Community Decision 486, Colombia is free to issue compulsory licenses to advance public interest objectives. The WTO’s Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health “affirm[s] that the [TRIPS] Agreement can and should be interpreted and implemented in a manner supportive of WTO members’ right to protect public health and, in particular, to promote access to medicines for all.”

Issuing a compulsory license in this case will help promote access to medicines for all. Lopinavir/ritonavir is a key medicine in the treatment of HIV/AIDS. The high price charged by Abbott, the patent holder for this medicine, constitutes a barrier to access and hinders efforts to make antiretroviral treatment available in Colombia to all who need it.

A compulsory license for lopinavir/ritonavir in Colombia would allow the state to obtain and offer imported generics, as well as permit the local production of lopinavir/ritonavir. The result could be greater product availability for patients, robust competition, and savings for the state, which could be directed to other public needs.

Thank you for this opportunity to comment. We urge that you give all due consideration to this license request.

Sincerely,

Essential Action
P.O. Box 19405
Washington, D.C. 20036

Health Action International Asia-Pacific
Colombo, Sri Lanka

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), Austria

Asia Pacific Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (APN+)

American Medical Student Association
Washington, D.C.

ACT UP Paris

Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property
American University, Washington College of Law
Washington, D.C.

Agua Buena Human Rights Association
San Jose, Costa Rica

Collaborative Fund for HIV Treatment Preparedness-South Asia

Delhi Network of Positive People (DNP+)
New Delhi, India

The Youth Alliance For Rights
Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India

CATHOLIC RELIEF SERVICES
CAMEROON

Treatment Advocacy and Literacy Campaign (TALC)
Lusaka, Zambia

Good Health Educators Initiative
Ikotun, Lagos

The Group for Life Incentive
Sao Paulo, Brazil

ACT UP Philadelphia

Federation of Medical and Sales Representatives’ Associations of India (FMRAI)
West Bengal, India

CHINAAIDSGROUP.ORG

Sambhavna Trust Clinic, Bhopal

Artists for a New South Africa
Los Angeles, CA, USA

All-Ukrainian Network of PLWHAs

Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center
San Francisco, CA

Network for ARV Users of People Living with HIV
Lusaka, Zambia

AIDS Action Now!
Toronto, ON M5P 2L2

Positive Malaysian Treatment Access & Advocacy Group (MTAAG+)

Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM)
Cambridge, MA, USA

Health GAP (Global Access Project)
Philadelphia, USA

Knowledge Ecology International
Washington, D.C.

HEPS Uganda (Coalition for Health Promotion and Social development)

European AIDS Treatment Group (EATG)
Brussels, Belgium

ACT UP Berkeley-Oakland, CA, USA

Health Action International (HAI) Africa

Africa-Europe Faith & Justice Network (AEFJN)
BRUSSELS, Belgium

Network of Zimbabwean Positive Women (NZPW+)

Student Global AIDS Campaign
USA

Lawyers Collective HIV/AIDS Unit, Mumbai, India
Center for Policy Analysis on Trade and Health (CPATH)?
San Francisco, CA, USA

Phasuma
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

UK Student Stop AIDS Campaign
London, England

Groups Urge Colombia To Issue AIDS Drug License

By Ed Silverman // August 6th, 2008 // 4:06 pm
Pharmalot

An international coalition of patient and public health advocacy groups has sent a letter to representatives of the Colombian government, endorsing a recent request by several Colombian civil society groups for an open compulsory license on Abbott’s Kaletra AIDS medicine.

Kaletra currently costs the Colombian public sector about $1,683 per patient annually, and prices for private health organizations reach $4,449, according to the groups. Peru and Bolivia, by contrast, pay less than $800 for a generic version. Through a recent accord with the Clinton Foundation, prices in the region could fall to $550, and by issuing a compulsory license and allowing generics firms to compete with Kaletra, the Colombian government could save $1 million annually, the groups contend.

The coalition issued its letter today at the International AIDS Conference being held this week in Mexico City, and the groups include Doctors Without Borders, Health Action International, American Medical Student Association, Health GAP and ACT UP, among about two dozen others. We are awaiting a reply from Abbott.

The United States, the European Union, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand are now negotiating a new treaty known as the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).

The text of what they are negotiating remains secret, but there’s a lot to be worried about. An over-reaching treaty in this field could require Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to monitor all consumers’ Internet communications, interfere with fair use of copyrighted material and undermine access to low-cost generic medicines, among many other dangers.

Does the proposed ACTA contain provisions that would result in these harmful effects?

There’s no way to know, because the treaty text remains secret. There is no legitimate rationale for such secrecy, which denies people around the world an opportunity to comment on and influence the negotiations.

Essential Action is asking organizations and individuals from around the world to sign on to a letter to ACTA negotiators, asking that they immediately make public the draft text of the treaty. The text of the letter, with initial signatories, is below.

If you would like to sign the letter, please send your name, affiliation (if any), city/country and email address to Sarah Rimmington of Essential Action at: . Please specify if you are signing in your individual capacity or on behalf of an organization. **Please note: Our deadline for accepting signatures is Wednesday, August 20, 2008.**

LETTER TO ANTI-COUNTERFEITING TRADE AGREEMENT NEGOTIATORS

Dear [Negotiator],

We are writing to urge the negotiators of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement to agree to publish immediately the draft text of the agreement, as well as pre-draft discussion papers (especially for portions for which no draft text yet exists), before continuing further discussions over the treaty. We ask also that you publish the agenda for negotiating sessions and treaty-related meetings in advance of such meetings, and publish a list of participants in the negotiations.

There is no legitimate rationale to keep the treaty text secret, and manifold reasons for immediate publication.

The trade in products intended to deceive consumers as to who made them poses important but complicated public policy issues. An overbroad or poorly drafted international instrument on counterfeiting could have very harmful consequences. Based on news reports and published material from various business associations, we are deeply concerned about matters such as whether the treaty will:

+ Require Internet Service Providers to monitor all consumers’ Internet communications, terminate their customers’ Internet connections based on rights holders’ repeat allegation of copyright infringement, and divulge the identity of alleged copyright infringers possibly without judicial process, threatening Internet users’ due process and privacy rights; and potentially make ISPs liable for their end users’ alleged infringing activity;

+ Interfere with fair use of copyrighted materials;

+ Criminalize peer-to-peer file sharing;

+ Interfere with legitimate parallel trade in goods, including the resale of brand-name pharmaceutical products;

+ Impose liability on manufacturers of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), if those APIs are used to make counterfeits — a liability system that may make API manufacturers reluctant to sell to legal generic drug makers, and thereby significantly damage the functioning of the legal generic pharmaceutical industry;

+ Improperly criminalize acts not done for commercial purpose and with no public health consequences; and

+ Improperly divert public resources into enforcement of private rights.

Because the text of the treaty and relevant discussion documents remain secret, the public has no way of assessing whether and to what extent these and related concerns are merited.

Equally, because the treaty text and relevant discussion documents remain secret, treaty negotiators are denied the insights and perspectives that public interest organizations and individuals could offer. Public review of the texts and a meaningful ability to comment would, among other benefits, help prevent unanticipated pernicious problems arising from the treaty. Such unforeseen outcomes are not unlikely, given the complexity of the issues involved.

The lack of transparency in negotiations of an agreement that will affect the fundamental rights of citizens of the world is fundamentally undemocratic. It is made worse by the public perception that lobbyists from the music, film, software, video games, luxury goods and pharmaceutical industries have had ready access to the ACTA text and pre-text discussion documents through long-standing communication channels.

The G8’s recent Declaration on the World Economy implored negotiators to include ACTA negotiations this year. The speed of the negotiations makes it imperative that relevant text and documents be made available to the citizens of the world immediately.

We look forward to your response, and to working with you toward resolution of our concerns.

Sincerely,

Consumers Union. Publisher of Consumer Reports
Yonkers, NY, USA

Electronic Frontier Foundation
San Francisco, CA, USA

Essential Action
Washington, DC, USA

IP Justice
San Francisco, CA, USA

Knowledge Ecology International
Washington, DC, USA

Public Knowledge
Washington, DC, USA

[list in formation)

—

(Attachment to Sign-on Letter):

OPENNESS IN TRADE AND OTHER MULTILATERAL NEGOTIATIONS

Negotiating texts are commonly made public in multilateral trade negotiation, although some trade negotiations are characterized by secrecy.

Examples of negotiations where texts are or were made public include:

+ The current Doha Round negotiations at the World Trade Organization;

http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dda_e/dda_e.htm

+ The Free Trade Area of the Americas;

http://www.ftaa-alca.org/FTAADraft03/Index_e.asp

+ The Multilateral Agreement on Investment (although initial texts were not made public)

http://www.oecd.org/document/35/0,3343,en_2649_33783766_1894819_1_1_1_1,00.html

+ Draft text at the World Health Organization, where resolutions are published in advance of consideration and treaty or treaty-like negotiations are handled openly, including this example of follow-on negotiations for the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control:

http://www.who.int/gb/fctc/

+ The World Intellectual Property Organization, including this example of a draft Treaty on the Protection of Broadcasting Organizations:

http://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/doc_details.jsp?doc_id=57213

———-

For more on ACTA, see:

Activists Take on Abbott Laboratories in a Tug-of-War for Access to AIDS Medicines in Colombia
International advocates stage tug-of-war to call for Compulsory License for Kaletra

Protest at 2:30pm CDT (3:30pm EST) outside Banamex Media Center (International AIDS Conference (IAC), Mexico City)
3pm CDT (4:00pm EST) Press Conference in Room 1 (Azteca)

Contacts:
Peter Maybarduk, Essential Action
(in México)
+52 55 1902-1954
[email protected]

David Morales Alba, Comunicación Positiva
(en México)
+52 55 2819-2970
[email protected]

Mexico City, Mexico – Wednesday, August 6, 2008 at 2:30 PM, at the entrance to the IAC press center –
A large international coalition of activists, people living with HIV/AIDS, and medical and law students are calling on the Colombian government to live up to its humanitarian responsibility to provide access to generic AIDS medications.

People with HIV in clinical need of treatment and their allies will have a tug-of-war with drug-maker Abbott Laboratories, a competition that only the Colombian government can decide.

“My government must not let its people die when there exists a simple, affordable solution to helping people with HIV/AIDS live normal lives,” says Francisco Rossi of Colombian NGO IFARMA-HAI (Health Action International).

On 16 July, 2008, an alliance of Colombian civil society groups filed a request for their government to issue an open compulsory license on the life-saving anti-retroviral drug lopinavir/ritonavir, patented and sold by Chicago-based Abbott Laboratories as Kaletra. Several months earlier, on 7 April, 2008, Colombian civil society asked Abbott directly to voluntarily license its patent and allow generic competition. To date, Abbott has not responded to the groups’ request.

The Colombian government is empowered under WTO (World Trade Organization) and Andean Community rules to issue compulsory licenses, authorizing generic competition with patented medicines to protect public health, in exchange for a reasonable royalty to the patent holder.

“The Colombian government must partner with patients, instead of with Abbott, following the example of the many countries that have issued compulsory licenses,” says Mary Carol Jennings from the American
Medical Student Association (AMSA). “This means making generic medications available at low cost to people whose lives depend on them.”

Following the tug-of-war, the coalition will host a press conference in Press Conference Room 1 (“Azteca”) announcing the support of dozens of patients’ groups and public health advocacy organizations from around the world for the Colombian compulsory license request.

Kaletra currently costs the Colombian public sector approximately $1683USD per patient, per year, and prices for private health organizations reach $4449. Peru and Bolivia, by contrast, pay less than $800 for generic lopinavir/ritonavir. Through a recent accord with the Clinton Foundation, prices in the region could fall to $550. By issuing a compulsory license and allowing generics firms to compete with Abbott’s Kaletra, the Colombian government could save well over $1million USD annually. These savings could be invested in scaling up HIV/AIDS treatment and strengthening Colombia’s health system.

Mesa de Organizaciones que trabajan en VIH/SIDA (en Bogotá)
* +57-1-338-4991 * [email protected] *