PUBLIC
HEALTH BEFORE COMMERCIAL INTERESTS
NGO
Statement on the Position the Hong Kong
Government Should Take on WTO TRIPs
Every year more than
11 million people around the world,
mainly in developing countries, die of
infectious diseases (WHO, 2000). Most of
these deaths can be avoided, but poverty
and the high price of medicines denies
them the right to live.
The rules enforced
under the World Trade Organization's (WTO)
Agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual
Property Rights (TRIPs) encourage the
high cost of essential medicines. In
response, the governments of many
developing countries and community
organizations are lobbying the WTO and
developed countries to revise these rules.
As a member of WTO, Hong Kong should also
stand up to support public health as a
fundamental human right at the coming WTO
conferences. Human life and public health
should come before commercial interests.
TRIPs provides 20
years patent protection to newly invented
products and its production processes.
This patent protection also covers
medicines. At present, 90 percent of
patents on medicines are held by big
pharmaceutical corporations. Therefore,
TRIPs allows these pharmaceutical giants
to make huge profits from monopoly
pricing.
When faced with a
health crisis, WTO member states have the
right to issue compulsory licenses to
local pharmaceutical manufacturers to
produce cheaper medicines. This may be
justified on the grounds of public health.
The formalities, however, are complex,
with numerous restrictions limiting
implementation. It is strictly prohibited
to export medicines under compulsory
licence. Under such provision, many
countries have to buy expensive patented
medicines.
Patent protection
also prevents other pharmaceutical
manufacturers from making cheaper generic
drugs. Without competition,
pharmaceutical companies can maintain
high medicine prices in the long term. As
a result, the accessibility of poor
people in developing countries to
essential medicine has been undermined.
For example, the price of patented Epivir
(3TC), Zerit (d4T), Viramune (NVP) a
retroviral medicine for AIDs related
disease, costs HK$117,000, while the
generic version costs only HK$2,730. In
South Africa, in order to lower the
medicine price, the government amended
the Medicine Act in 1997. It was
challenged by 39 pharmaceutical giants
that it is not TRIPs compliance. In the
following three years, 400,000 AIDs
patients died, most of them cannot afford
the high medicine price.
In Hong Kong, the
rights to treatment of many chronically
ill patients were denied due to the high
medicine price. An extended patent period
will prolong the economic burden of the
patients and their family members. Many
patients rely on medicine to control the
disease and extend lives. But new
medicine are expensive, it is a heavy
burden for those who are not economically
viable. According to a report by Alliance
for Patients' Mutual Help Organizations,
25% of those patients who have to pay for
their own medicines gave up treatment
because of high cost.
In the face of the
unreasonable high cost, public pressure
grows. In response to that, the WTO held
a special one-day conference during the
TRIPs Review Council in June. For the
first time, members discussed the effect
of global patent rules on poor people's
access to essential medicine. During the
conference many countries, including
developing countries and the European
Union, agreed that TRIPs affects poor
people's access to medicine and urged
further discussion. The governments of
some countries, especially the US, are
opposed to developing countries' calls
for revision of TRIPs.
Another TRIPs Review
Council will be held by the WTO in
September. A special session will be held
to discuss this public health issue on
the 19th. A proposal will be submitted to
the fourth WTO ministerial meeting in
Qatar in November. Both of these
conferences provide an opportunity to
push for the revision of TRIPs. As non-governmental
organizations in Hong Kong, we demand
that the Hong Kong Government recognize
this global public health issue and
support access to essential medicine and
health care as a basic human right. Poor
people must have the right to obtain life-saving
medicines. This is the basic human right
to life and must not be undermined by
commercial interests.
We therefore urge the
Hong Kong Government to support the
following principles and recommended
revisions of TRIPs at the coming WTO
conferences:
Human lives
and public health concerns should
come before commercial interests.
A country
should have the right to use
measures in TRIPS to protect
their citizens' lives and public
health. In using such measures,
that country should not face
sanctions from other countries.
An in-depth
review of the health and
development impacts of TRIPS must
be undertaken, with a view to
reducing the length and scope of
pharmaceutical patent protection.
Stronger
public health safeguards in TRIPS:
For countries that face a health
crisis, TRIPS should allow easing
of the conditions for local
production of essential drugs,
exporting these drugs to others
in crisis and introducing
parallel imports of cheapest
drugs.
Patents may be
important, but human life is essential.
Although Hong Kong is not a major center
for the manufacture of medicine, it is
affected by the issue of patents on
medicines. The World Health Organization
predicts that in the new century China
and the countries of Southeast Asia will
face a public health crisis due to
infectious diseases, especially HIV/AIDS.
The spread of infectious diseases is a
global phenomenon. The Hong Kong
Government, as a member of the global
community should support moves to promote
fairness, justice and uphold fundamental
human rights.
The NGO
statement is initiated by:
AIDS Concern
Alliance for Patients' Mutual Help
Organizations
Alternatives
Medecins Sans Frontieres
Oxfam Hong Kong
Social Action Workshop for Alternatives
in Asia
The Society for AIDS Care
Joint
Signatories:
Globalization Monitor
Justice & Peace Commission of the
Hong Kong Catholic Diocese
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