The Wall Street Journal warns that countries and allied activist groups are trying to use the latest World Trade Organisation negotiations, called the Doha round, to strip away protection for drug patents.
Behind the WTO move are countries like India and Argentina, that do not respect patents and have large knock-off pharmaceutical industries. These industries fund activists who charge that the high price of patented drugs fuels epidemics like AIDS in Africa. But drug patents aren’t responsible for the lack of access to medicines in poor countries.
America, Britain and Switzerland are the only countries with innovative, research-based pharmaceutical industries, and thus the only ones interested in standing up for patent rights. The WTO is expected to approve a draft resolution on drug patent rights in December; but unless it includes patent right protections, the United States should walk away from the table.
Source: Editorial, The Assault on Drug Patents, Wall Street Journal, November 25, 2002.
For text (requires WSJ subscription)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1038185396246563548,00.html
For more on International Drug Issues http://www.ncpa.org/iss/hea
FMF Policy Bulletin\26 November 2002
