By Gustavo Capdevila
GENEVA, Jul 11 2003 (IPS)

Poor countries’ access to low-cost medicines has become, alongside farm trade, a make-or-break issue in what has been dubbed the Doha Round of negotiations, under the auspices of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Carlos Pérez del Castillo, chairman of the WTO General Council, says the lack of any sort of agreement in these two areas will spoil the conference of trade ministers from the 146 WTO member states who are to gather in September in the Mexican resort city of Cancún.

The last ministerial conference, held in Doha, Qatar, almost two years ago, gave the WTO the mandate to find a quick solution to help countries that lack the capacity to manufacture medicines through the system of compulsory licensing.

One of the WTO accords, Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), establishes that in the case of epidemics governments may grant licences for the production of generic drugs, which are less expensive than the name brands patented by the big pharmaceutical transnationals.

In paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration, focusing on TRIPS and public health, the ministers state that by the end of 2002 a solution to the problem of poor countries’ access to essential medicines must be found.

That deadline came and went and the WTO member countries did not comply with the mandate, just as has occurred with most of the other deadlines set in the Doha Round.

But on the road to Cancún a solution to the problem of access to low-cost drugs, "more for symbolic reasons than for trade reasons," is "absolutely necessary," says Pérez del Castillo, General Council chairman as well as chief trade negotiator for Uruguay.

The debate on intellectual property rights and public health has been preceded by an extensive campaign involving several governments of developing countries, led by Brazil, South Africa and India, as well as international civil society groups specialising in health and human rights.

In the nations of the South, this has become "a banner issue due to its humanitarian characteristics," Pérez del Castillo told a group of Spanish-language journalists gathered in Geneva this week for a seminar hosted by Germany’s Friedrich Ebert Foundation.

WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell agrees with the General Council chairman in that success in Cancún regarding access to low-cost medications would be an "historic agreement" in the multilateral trade system.

But if there is no progress made on the drugs issue, Pérez del Castillo says, "I doubt that the countries of Africa and the rest of the developing world are going to accept compromises on other matters."

The solution seemed within reach last Dec. 16, when the Mexican ambassador to the WTO, Eduardo Pérez Motta, who at the time served as chairman of the TRIPS Council, presented a draft declaration that apparently had unanimous support.

That was until the U.S. delegation, which consults with the big pharmaceutical labs based in that country, blocked the consensus, which is the method the WTO uses for approving certain of its resolutions.

The pharmaceutical industry initially demanded that permits for sales of generic drugs in the countries of the South and others with lesser technological development should be limited to those used in treating just three diseases: HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.

Later, they proposed that the list could be expanded to 22, but even that was rejected by the developing countries, which questioned any attempt to limit the diseases to be treated by generic drugs, citing the threat of outbreaks of new diseases.

The sudden eruption of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) in the first part of this year validates the developing countries’ arguments, noted Rockwell.

The transnational laboratories later expressed their fear that a WTO decision might favour "disloyal competition" by countries that have the capacity to produce generic medications, competing directly with others that hold patent rights and enjoy protection under the TRIPS Agreement.

The drugs industry is concerned, for example, that the production of generics would ultimately undermine highly profitable patents, like that of Viagra, commented the WTO spokesman.

But it is very difficult to imagine that a country like Botswana, ravaged by the high prevalence of HIV/AIDS, could have much interest in treating penile dysfunction as a public health problem, according to Rockwell.

In the search for a solution it is likely that some developing countries that are part of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a group that also includes all industrialised nations, will renounce the right to produce generic medications for export to poor countries confronting epidemics.

The delegations from Mexico, Singapore and South Korea are expected to present a formal declaration in this sense to the TRIPS Council, said Pérez del Castillo.

The drugs industry, said the General Council chairman, has communicated to the WTO its willingness to resolve the matter prior to the Cancún ministerial conference, slated for Sep. 10-14.

The big laboratories recognise the fact that many civil society groups will be sending representatives to Cancún and that one of their main slogans will be access to low-cost medications for poor countries – and it will be couched in criticisms of the transnational drug firms.

Because of this, the companies want to settle the matter before September so that they will not be blamed if the conference turns into a fiasco, said the trade official.

Excerpt: