The Urgency of Cheaper Drugs

". . . Members of the World Trade Organization are meeting in Doha, Qatar, on Nov. 9 to try to launch a new round of high-level talks on trade. The majority of the world's nations, led by Brazil, want to pass a declaration stating that nothing in the World Trade Organization rules governing patents would prevent governments from safeguarding public health.

"The nations pushing for change want to broaden the World Trade Organization's rules on intellectual property to make it easier for countries to manufacture or import low-cost drugs, especially the anti-AIDS cocktail that costs more than $10,000 per year in the developed world. While current world trade rules allow countries to break patents under certain circumstances, among them public health emergencies, no country has done it for AIDS medicines, in part because of pressure from Washington. A World Trade Organization resolution clearly stating that public health comes first would give these nations political support.

"The United States and Switzerland, home to many multinational drug companies, are blocking the declaration and proposing a weaker version, unacceptable to most countries. . . . The American government, echoing drug makers, argues that patents are not a significant bar to AIDS treatment.

"It is true that other problems, including lack of trained people to deliver the medicines, impeded AIDS treatment. But for millions of AIDS sufferers, patents that keep drug prices high are a major reason that AIDS treatment is out of reach. Anthrax has killed a handful of Americans so far. AIDS has killed 22 million worldwide. Americans today can surely understand the need to give poor countries every possible weapon to fight back."

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