Wednesday June 20, 4:28 pm Eastern Time Poor Nations Want Lax Drug Rules Developing Countries Say World Trade Rules for Drug Patents Should Be More Flexible to Combat AIDS By JONATHAN FOWLER Associated Press Writer GENEVA (AP) -- World trade rules protecting drug patents should be made more flexible because they hurt efforts to fight the AIDS epidemic, developing country negotiators at the World Trade Organization said Wednesday. The rules should not be allowed to ``undermine the legitimate right of WTO members to formulate their own public health policies,'' said African and other poor country members of the 141-nation body in a statement during a one-day discussion on access to medicines. The WTO is facing increasing accusations that its 1995 deal governing patents, the Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights, or TRIPS, agreement, makes essential drugs too expensive for developing countries. Developing countries in the WTO have until 2006 to implement the agreement, which gives 20-year patent protection for drugs. A clause in the TRIPS agreement lets members suspend patent rules in times of emergency, but the definition is open to interpretation. Although they agree that patent rights should be protected, African nations have been pushing for more flexibility, arguing the agreement is ``insufficient to protect public health.'' But U.S. negotiator Claude Burcky told the meeting there was nothing wrong with the current arrangement. ``Some quite incorrectly blame the agreement for health crises or claim that it stands in the way of resolving such crises,'' he said. ``Without the economic incentives provided by patent systems there would be far fewer drugs available for the treatment and cure of life-threatening diseases.'' Pharmaceutical companies say that without royalties generated by patents they would be unable to fund future research. Health campaigners claim the rules favor wealthy nations and their drug lobbies. They say the rules undermine budding low-cost producers of generic drugs in countries like India or Brazil -- and prevent other poor countries turning to such producers. The United States has lodged a complaint with the WTO over Brazil's patent law which provides for generic versions of patented drugs to be produced locally. The United States and its drug companies claim that violates international trade law. ``Essential medicines are not like any other commodities, yet under the present intellectual property rules they are regulated very much like any other product,'' said Ellen 't Hoen, a spokeswoman for the drug-access initiative of the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres, also known as Doctors without Borders. ``There is a dire imbalance between the sanctity of patents and the health of people,'' she said. Campaigners like MSF assert that rich country pharmaceutical companies are ignoring the misery of sufferers because prices of patented medicines are well beyond the reach of most in the developing world, where 90 percent of HIV/AIDS patients live. They claim the cocktail of AIDS drugs should be available in poor countries for as low as dlrs 200 a year. Currently, the cocktail costs more than dlrs 1,000, while in rich countries it can cost as much as dlrs 15,000 annually. Manufacturers, some of whom have offered cut-rate drugs to countries in need, say they oppose any change. ``It would be a mistake to alter this agreement,'' said Harvey Bale, director-general of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations. ``Access to medicines isn't about patents, but about investing in health services so the drugs get to the people that need them. This debate is really about the easy political way out.''
