World Bank Urges World Trade Organization on Drug Rules

Officials at the World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in Doha, Qatar, this week must ensure that rules protecting patents, known as Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) do not prevent poor countries from producing or importing cheap drugs to fight AIDS and other pandemics, a World Bank official said.

The issue pits poor countries against drug makers and the industrial nations where they are based, such as Merck & Co. in the United States, GlaxoSmithKline PLC in the United Kingdom, and Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH of Germany. US and Canadian threats to break patents on Bayer AG's Cipro, used to treat anthrax, complicate the question. "This is an issue that is supercharged with interest from various sides," said Michael Moore, the WTO's director-general.

The WTO's 1995 patent-protecting treaty does not adequately address extraordinary health events like AIDS, which has killed more than 13 million people in Africa alone and must do that in any new round of trade talks, according to Nicolas Stern, the World Bank's chief economist. But activists say that global trade rules favor profits over people, and that it won't be easy to get the matter on the agenda of the WTO meeting that begins Friday.

Some developing countries have linked their support for the Doha talks to the drug issue. European governments last week pledged to support clarification of the rules under which developing countries can break patents in national health emergencies. European Union foreign ministers have backed the use of TRIPS to allow governments to grant special licenses to manufacture drugs to fight epidemics like HIV/AIDS and TB. US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick has taken the same position and has shown US "good will" by offering to extend to 2016 the deadline for full compliance with TRIPS for developing countries, with a five-year moratorium on WTO challenges to any sub-Saharan nation that breaks patents to deal with health crises.

Brazil, India and South Africa want stronger language and are spearheading the drive by more than 40 developing countries to back a proposal that says: "Nothing in the TRIPS agreement shall prevent members from taking measures to protect public health."

Back to other CDC news for November 7, 2001

Previous Updates