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US
blocking deal to cut drug prices At a meeting
of the World Trade Organisation in Geneva last weekend, the US said
it could not agree to WTO patent regulation amendments for parallel
imports whereby developing countries could have obtained essential
drugs at affordable prices. Sri Lanka also
was planning to make extensive parallel imports from India and other
countries through the State Pharmaceutical corporations and the
newly set up State Trading company Medical Ltd. According to the
action committee on justice for patients such parallel imports could
have helped Sri Lanka to slash the prices of drugs for the treatment
of AIDS, Malaria,Tuberculosis and other diseases. But that will
not be possible now because the US has dealt a virtual death blow
to the proposed deal One NGO campaigning
in Geneva for a deal on life-saving drugs accused the US and other
major powers of being driven by the interests of their pharmaceutical
firms rather than by humanitarian considerations. According to
a shocking report in the London Guardian it was US vice president
Dick Chenney - widely known to be an advocate for global corporations
including drug giants - who personally intervened at the Geneva
meeting to block a global deal to provide cheap drugs to poor countries,
following intense lobbying of the White House by America's pharmacuetical
giants. Faced with
furious opposition from all the other 140 members of the WTO the
US refused to relax global patent laws which keep the price of drugs
beyond reach of most developing countries. Talks at the
WTO's Geneva headquarters collapsed after the White House ruled
out a deal which would have permitted full range of life-saving
drugs to be imported into Africa, Asia and Latin America at cut
price costs, the Guardian said. Sources in
Geneva said that the negotiating strategy had come straight from
the White House, with Mr. Cheney seizing the reins from America's
trade negotiator, Robert Zoellick. The Drug industry
argues that it spends billions a year on drug research and that
if copycat companies can override their patents and manufacture
drugs at bargain prices, research will dry up. However aid
agencies lobbying on behalf of poor countries pointed out that the
cut-price drugs will only be sold in countries which cannot afford
to buy them at First World prices. They accused the White House
of being in the pocket of big US drug companies. Dr. K. Balasubramanium
Asia Pacific Consultant to the Colombo based health Action International
said yesterday, Paragraph 6 of the WTO Doha Declaration was of vital
importance to countries like Sri Lanka which did not have the capacity
to manufacture patent protected drugs through compulsory licensing. He said WTO ministers had recognized that WTO members with insufficient or no manufacturing capacities in the pharmaceutical sector could face difficulties under the TRIPS Agreement. The ministers instructed the council from TRIPS to find an expeditious solution to the problem and to report to the council before the end of 2002. The TRIPS Council was requested to negotiate an agreement so that generic drugs produced under compulsory licensing by a country with manufacturing capacity like India could be exported to a developing country like Sri Lanka which has no manufacturing capacity. This is referred to as "imports/exports of generic drugs." The TRIPS Council
met in Geneva last week but failed to negotiate such an agreement.
He said the
US, for various reasons indicated that the Doha Declaration would
have to be rewritten. The developed
countries argued that compulsory licenses should be granted to a
few drugs for imports and exports. Developing countries said wanted the spirit of Doha to prevail so that developing countries could override patent laws in the interest of public health by putting public interest over commercial interests, Dr. Balsubramanium said.
Dr. Padeniya
said the other faction had made a complaint to the police earlier
that 'a person called Dr. Niles had stolen the cheque books'. "My
statement to the Cinnamon Garden Police in this regard was clarifying
who Dr. Niles was and explaining that he had the authority to take
charge of financial matters as the Chief Trustee. Dr. Niles didn't
take the cheque books home, he only took charge of handling the
financial issues," Dr. Padeniya said. The police,
Dr. Padeniya said, had concluded that the issue should be resolved
among themselves as it was an internal conflict. The division
in the union was a result of differences of opinion which prompted
five executive committee members including the President, Treasurer
and three Assistant Secretaries of the GMOA to resign. But the rival
faction tells a completely different story. GMOA Assistant Secretary,
Rukshan Bellana, a spokesman for the rival group said the Padeniya
faction was virtually accusing them of stealing the cheque books.
Dr. J.R. Saranapala another spokesman for the rival group said Dr.
Niles had taken over the cheque books but failed to inform the Executive
Committee and that was the basis of their complaint to the police.
He said Dr.Padeniya's claim that the cheque books had disappeared was baseless. Gas
prices explode Responding
to protests by angry consumers, spokesmen for both companies blamed
the massive price hikes on Persian Gulf tension over a possible
US, Iraq war and a rise in world market prices. On Thursday
Shell announced it was raising its price by Rs. 31 and Laugfs followed
the next day with a double jump by as much as Rs. 65. Laugf gas chairman
W.K.H. Wegapitiya said his proposing a deal to the government. He
said they could reduce the price of a cylinder by Rs. 58 if tax
concessions were given. Consumer Affairs
Minister Ravi Karunanayake facing widespread public criticism for
failing to check gas prices and the cost of living said tension
in the Persian Gulf and the resultant prices hikes were beyond his
control. Laugfs gas had come into the market last year promising its prices would be much lower than Shell's but now they are running parallel. In that scenario where much is promised but little is kept a third gas company Mundo gas has come into the scene with its chairman promising gas at much lower prices from next month. For the past few months Mundo has been turning on the gas saying it will come into operation soon leaving most consumers sceptical as to whether even a third company would serve public interest or commercial interest. |
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