http://www.guardian.co.uk/medicine/story/0,,1946998,00.html
Rich countries 'blocking cheap drugs for developing world'

· US and EU have broken Doha pledges, says Oxfam
· Stop Aids claims 75% of HIV patients not treated

Sarah Boseley, health editor
Tuesday November 14, 2006
The Guardian

Poor people are needlessly dying because drug companies and the
governments of rich countries are blocking the developing world from
obtaining affordable medicines, a report says today.

Five years to the day after the Doha declaration - a groundbreaking
deal to give poor countries access to cheap drugs - was signed at the
World Trade Organisation, Oxfam says things are worse.

The charity accuses the US, which champions the interests of its giant
pharmaceutical companies, of bullying developing countries into not
using the measures in the Doha declaration and the EU of standing by
and doing nothing. Doha technically allows poor countries to buy cheap
copies of desperately needed drugs but the US is accused of trying to
prevent countries such as Thailand and India, which have manufacturing
capacity, making and selling cheap generic versions so as to preserve
the monopolies of the drug giants.

"Rich countries have broken the spirit of the Doha declaration," said
Celine Charveriat, head of Oxfam's Make Trade Fair campaign. "The
declaration said the right things but needed political action to work
and that hasn't happened. In fact, we've actually gone backwards. Many
people are dying or suffering needlessly."

The Indian generics firms make most of the cheap drug cocktails that
are now being rolled out to people with HIV in Africa and are keeping
more than a million people alive. They brought the price of a basic
three-drug cocktail down from $10,000 (£5,250) a year to less than
$150 (£79). But new Aids drugs will soon be needed because the virus
will become resistant to the basic ones now in use - as has happened
in the EU and the US.

Those newer Aids drugs, together with drugs for cancer and diabetes,
are under patent. The Oxfam report points out that 4 million people
were newly infected with HIV in 2005 and cancer and diabetes are
expanding faster in developing countries than in the richer world.

The report says that, since the signing of the Doha declaration on
November 14 2001, "rich countries have failed to honour their
promises. Their record ranges from apathy and inaction to dogged
determination to undermine the declaration's spirit and intent. The
US, at the behest of the pharmaceutical industry, is uniqely guilty of
seeking ever higher levels of intellectual property protection in
developing countries."

The US has pursued its own free trade agreements with developing
countries, tying them into much tighter observance of patent rights
than anticipated at Doha. "The USA has also pressured countries for
greater patent protection through threats of trade sanctions," the
report says.

The drugs firms are also fighting to have patents observed. Pfizer is
challenging the Philippines government in a bid to extend its monopoly
on Norvasc, a drug pressure drug. Novartis is engaged in litigation in
India to enforce a patent for Glivec, a cancer drug, which could save
many lives if it were available at generic prices.

The Stop Aids campaign, a coalition of 90 NGOs of which Oxfam is a
member, is calling for the government to champion the issue at the G8
summit next year. Three-quarters of HIV drugs are still under monopoly
and unaffordable in poor countries, it said. More than 75% of those
who need HIV treatment urgently are still not getting it. Only 8% of
children with HIV are on drugs, which cost four times more than those
for adults.

"Sadly, promising words have not translated into life-saving
treatments and five years is too long to wait when the stakes are so
high," said Steve Cockburn, campaign coordinator.

Case study

Premavati, a 60-year-old widow living in Delhi who is suffering from
non-Hodgkins lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system, has spent
around $900 (£470) on medicines. "My husband died two years ago," says
Premavati. "We have absolutely no savings. Of my two sons one is a
casual labourer, the other has no job. My daughter is 30, has two
children and is also a widow." She is one of 1.42 billion people in
India who cannot afford the drugs they need to save their lives. Their
country is the leading producer of inexpensive generic drugs but about
67% of the output is exported, and it is under pressure to stop
copying new patented drugs. The future looks bleak for Premavati. "How
will I raise the money for my treatment?" she says, "Already, I've
spent what we had. If nobody helps I will just go back to my daughter
and will have to die without medicines."