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Medical Forum / General / General / March 2005Brazil's bold move: generic rights on AIDS drugs or we'll break patent
By Kelly Hearn, AlterNet Posted on March 25, 2005, Printed on March 25, 2005 http://www.alternet.org/story/21586/ Bolstering its reputation as a world leader in price wars over AIDS medications, Brazil is threatening to break antiretroviral drug patents unless drug companies allow it to manufacture generic versions of four major AIDS drugs. A spokesperson for the Brazilian health ministry offered no comment when reached by telephone Wednesday, but a recent report on the Dow Jones newswire said the government of President Ignacio Lula de Silva has given three U.S. drug companies - Abbott, Gilead and Merck - until April 4 to transfer technology that would let labs make generic versions of Abbott's Kaletra, a combination pill of Lopinavir and Ritonavir, Gilead Science's Tenofovir and Merck's Efavirenz. Brazilian health officials say the four drugs combined take up 67 percent of the government's funds for imported AIDS medicines. -------more------- >>Bolstering its reputation as a world leader in price wars over AIDS medications, Brazil is threatening to break antiretroviral drug patents unless drug companies allow it to manufacture generic versions of four major AIDS drugs. A spokesperson for the Brazilian health ministry offered no comment when reached by telephone Wednesday, but a recent report on the Dow Jones newswire said the government of President Ignacio Lula de Silva has given three U.S. drug companies - Abbott, Gilead and Merck - until April 4 to transfer technology that would let labs make generic versions of Abbott's Kaletra, a combination pill of Lopinavir and Ritonavir, Gilead Science's Tenofovir and Merck's Efavirenz. Brazilian health officials say the four drugs combined take up 67 percent of the government's funds for imported AIDS medicines. << COMMENT: LOL. India tried that, and got toasted for it in the software market. Brazil can huff and puff, but I don't think it's dumb enough to do what it threatens. Brazil, like India, has in the past been a pariah among nations in regards to drug intellectual property (IP) rights. Until recently, when Brazil saw the light, and agreed to honor World Trade Agreement treaties. That properly resulted in a lot of pharmaceutical manufacturing money flowing into Brazil. Which Brazil liked. But reneging on this again, as Brazil well knows, will mean not only pharaceutical investment dollars fleeing again from Brazil (after a VERY brief return), but will also mean the US will take revenge by simply refusing to honor copyright or brand-name labeling on anything Brazil produces. And the international patent office (based in New York) may well decide that Brazil doesn't deserve to receive world patent protection on any Brazilian inventions. This is a world which will no longer tolerate poor countries stealing stuff from richer ones, and then crying that they can't get protection for their own products in international markets. Brazil has plenty of resources. It's going to have to come up with other stuff to legitimately trade for AIDS drugs, or else get a lot more serious about condoms. SBH > >>Bolstering its reputation as a world leader in price wars over AIDS > medications, Brazil is threatening to break antiretroviral drug patents [quoted text clipped - 38 lines] > > SBH I hope Brazil does it, and I hope they get away with it. Like many human arrangements, the "global marketplace" with its elaborate set of rules that primarily benefits the rich can be changed if enough people believe that it can, and act on that belief. Remember when the tobacco companies had never been held liable for a smoker's death because members of juries routinely bought the nonsense that it was exclusively the smoker's own decision to smoke? We learned otherwise, and everything changed. Leonard  Signature"Everything that rises must converge" --Flannery O'Connor Leonard Martin <lmarti49NOSPAM@bellsouth.net> wrote in part: >> This is a world which will no longer tolerate poor countries stealing >> stuff from richer ones, and then crying that they can't get protection [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] >elaborate set of rules that primarily benefits the rich can be changed >if enough people believe that it can, and act on that belief. Rules can and should be changed, but Brazil's proposed action leads only to harm. Taking it to its logical conclusion, it would virtually eliminate new drugs. -- Jim Chinnis Warrenton, Virginia, USA > Leonard Martin <lmarti49NOSPAM@bellsouth.net> wrote in part: > [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > -- > Jim Chinnis Warrenton, Virginia, USA Are you sure? Maybe, if they HAD to be, our drug companies would be satisfied with charging us Americans, their captive clientele, the uniquely American ultra-high prices. It's good always to question the ready-made assumptions offered to you by the powerful. They have the money to pay smart people to make up reasonable-sounding reasons why they shoul get their way. For generations, businesses have said, in effect, "Don't do this, that, or the other, or the additional costs will mean we won't keep making the stuff you're planning to regulate!" Lots and lots of the time these threats haven't come true. Leonard Signature"Everything that rises must converge" --Flannery O'Connor
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