U.S. Demands New Condition for WTO Drug Pact, Aid Agencies Say

The United States is pressing poor countries to accept a new condition before it agrees to let them bypass drug patents to import generic AIDS, malaria and other medical treatments, according to aid agencies including Oxfam. The United States says a pact may enable generic drugmakers, such as India's Cipla Ltd., to sidestep patents held by U.S. companies on some drugs.

In December, the United States was the only member of the World Trade Organization to block an accord to ease the supply of medicine to poor countries.

The Bush administration is trying to secure guarantees from countries including Brazil, South Africa and India that they would not apply the new drug patent agreement except for "humanitarian use" to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, according to Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders, and the Third World Network. Treatments for illnesses such as cancer may be excluded.

"The U.S. seems to be pushing for a watertight system so that no generic drugs ever get through to the patients in developing countries who desperately need them," Ellen 't Hoen, a spokesperson for Doctors Without Borders, said in an e-mail. "We are really worried it may not work at all."

Dave Hamill, a spokesperson for the U.S. mission to the WTO in Geneva, declined to comment.

Efforts to overcome the dispute over access to generic medicines have dragged on for almost two years. Resolving the deadlock would give a boost to next month's meeting of trade ministers from the WTO's 146 members in Cancun, Mexico.

Back to other news for August 26, 2003