Activists Protest US Position on Patent Rights

Activists wielding paper skulls gave a rousing send-off Thursday to US trade representatives heading to Qatar for next week's meetings of the World Trade Organization. Just before evening rush hour, about 300 people gathered outside the Washington, D.C., office of US Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick. The activists, most of whom were bused in from Philadelphia, were protesting Zoellick's position on patent rights and access to life-extending drugs in poor countries.

Asia Russell, a member of Health Gap and ACT UP/Philadelphia, said the protest was a response to the Bush administration's request that people return to normal after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. "Making our voices and our cause heard is what's normal for us," Russell said.

Protesters said the current anthrax scare also highlights patent monopolies. "Bayer [which holds the patent on the anthrax drug Cipro] will profit considerably from the US anthrax threat, while activists insist that a domestic antibiotics stockpile would be built up more quickly and cheaply if Bayer's monopoly were set aside," Russell said. The group briefly stopped traffic before boarding buses in from of the World Bank Building. The event was the only US-based protest of next week's meeting.

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