A Push to Cut Cost of AIDS Drugs

On Friday, the leaders of 60 poor nations teamed with activists to challenge the World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in Doha, Quatar. They are angry that the Bush administration was willing to force price reductions for Bayer's anthrax drug Cipro but was unwilling to exercise similar clout to reduce the cost of AIDS drugs. At issue is the WTO's Trade Related Intellectual Property (TRIP) agreement, which affects patent protection worldwide for medicines.

The protesters are demanding sweeping changes in the agreement to allow rival manufacturers, on a limited basis, to sell discount versions of patented drugs for diseases in poor countries. But the pharmaceutical industry opposes such steps, arguing that without a guarantee of high returns on research, they cannot fund work on future medicines.

"The very same Senate that threatened African nations with sanctions if they disregard patent laws on HIV/AIDS drugs has announced it will disregard the Bayer AG patent on the anthrax drug Cipro," said Mwaganu wa Kaggia, president of the Philadelphia-based Kenya Children's AIDS Project. "But while anthrax is potentially very dangerous, its danger is nothing compared with the daily deaths from HIV/AIDS in Africa."

Two weeks ago, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson negotiated Bayer's price for Cipro from $4.67 per pill down to 95 cents. This was achieved, in part, because Canada had threatened to purchase patent-violating generic forms of the drug, and Thompson hinted the United States might follow suit.

The activists are especially upset because this week, with Americans focused on the threat of bioterrorism, Congress slashed its previously committed allocation for the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria from nearly $1 billion to be paid in 2002-03 to $190 million. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) is leading a group of 70 House and Senate members who are asking President Bush to set aside $1.2 billion for the fund. Prior to Sept. 11, experts were optimistic that a serious global response was being mobilized. Now, however, UN officials fear the entire fund is in jeopardy.

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