Medicine Access: Claims & Data

Sanjay Basu

The Framework for Access

The pipeline fallacy Patents and pricing

TRIPs measures

TRIPs & the WTO Parallel importation Compulsory licensing

What generics help do…

Are generics ‘illegitimate’?

The claim: Generic competition will undermine the pharma industry and future R&D

TRIPs-plus and Special 301

R&D spending?

Who pays?

A lesson from AIDS drugs

The Doha Declaration

– “The TRIPS Agreement does not and should not prevent Members from taking measures to protect public health”

– The WTO will operate to facilitate “access to medicines for all”

– “We recognize that WTO members with insufficient or no manufacturing capacities in the pharmaceutical sector could face difficulties in making effective use of compulsory licensing under the TRIPS Agreement.”

Doha derailed...

USTR (originally with EU and Japanese support) broke initial deadline for negotiations

This month: 17-page decision ...but existing flexibilities apply New infrastructure being built in southern

Africa by Brazil

Things to watch out for...

“The documents show that the trade association, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, known as PhRMA, will spend at least $150 million in the coming year.”

“The drug trade group plans to spend $1 million for an "intellectual echo chamber of economists”--a standing network of economists and thought leaders to speak against federal price control regulations through articles and testimony, and to serve as a rapid response team.“

“At least $2 million, and perhaps $2.5 million, in payments to research and policy organizations, "to build intellectual capital and generate a higher volume of messages from credible sources" sympathetic to the industry.”

“In addition, the budget sets aside $17.5 million to fight price controls and protect patent rights in foreign countries and in trade negotiations.”

“$9.4 million for public relations, including "$1 million for inside-the-Beltway advertising, $555,000 for placement of op-eds and articles by third parties," $600,000 for polling, $1.3 million for local publicity in 15 states and $680,000 for media relations consultants.”

Things to watch out for...

Attaran, Gillespie-White and “off-patent essential medicines”

Roger Bate and “Africa Fighting Malaria” DiMasi’s “$800 million” R&D figure “Data exclusivity”

The new USTR proposals:

New “AIDS Czar” Chile – CAFTA – FTAA – PPP Singapore – Indonesia/Thailand – ASEAN SACU Projected December completion date

More information…

www.essentialmedicines.org www.geocities.com/medicinepolicy www.accessmed-msf.org ****Dying for Growth: Global Inequality and the

Health of the Poor (Kim et al., 2000) ****Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights and

the New War on the Poor (Farmer, 2003) Siamese Tragedies: Development & Disintegration in

Modern Thailand (Bello et al., 1998) Global Intellectual Property Rights: Knowledge,

Access and Development (Drahos & Mayne, 2002)