Earlier this month the European Parliament held a hearing on access to medicines and TRIPS. Currently the European Union is hoping to conclude free trade deals (know as Economic Partnership Agreements or EPA’s) which could force African,
Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries to abide by European Union intellectual property rules. The deals would require ACP countries to enforce intellectual property in a manner which favours the patent holders and not the health system of the country concerned. EPA’s could override the World Trade Organisation TRIPS laws and thus undermine countries abilities to make use of the flexibilities outlined in the Doha agreement.

At the hearing a European Commission official argued that many medicines being used in developing countries are fake and that such countries should use Intellectual Property rules as a “source of inspiration” and an opportunity to prevent fraud. Reinforcing this point a GlaxoSmithKline representative argued that the most significant barriers to access to medicines come from widespread poverty and inadequate health systems within developing countries and not from intellectual property laws.

Campaigners at the meeting recommended that the EU encourages these countries to make use of the TRIPS flexibilities. MSF criticised the EU for its lack of response to the Thai government’s decision to issue a compulsory licence, which MSF say has led to an impressive “scaling up of treatment” within the country. Similarly an Italian MEP argued that no member of the WTO has decided to use the system agreed in 2003 which allows countries to import drugs if they are unable to manufacture them. This, he said, suggests that the flexibilities are not addressing the problems in a satisfactory way.

European Economic Partnership Agreement and the American equivalent Free Trade Agreements are potentially dangerous developments which could increase the barriers to treatment further still. Campaigners should be aware of developments not only on a global level but also within Europe.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 28th, 2007 at 2:35 pm and is filed under Campaign News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.