AIDS Groups outraged as EU and US continue “immoral blackmail” on generic AIDS medicines through Free Trade Agreement Negotiations
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20.07.2011

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                      
19 July 2011  

U.S. AND E.U. BREAK UN AIDS SUMMIT COMMITMENTS ON ACCESS TO TREATMENT
 
AIDS Groups outraged as EU and US continue “immoral blackmail” on generic AIDS medicines through Free Trade Agreement Negotiations
 
Rome – Tuesday 19 July 2011 – AIDS groups at the International AIDS Society conference in Rome today expressed outrage at ongoing free trade agreement negotiations by the United States and the European Union with multiple developing countries that threaten access to medicines for HIV, TB, hepatitis-C as well as other diseases in these countries.
 
The FTA negotiations continue despite a commitment by the US and EU at the United Nations High Level Meeting on HIV and AIDS in New York last month to “ensure that intellectual property rights provisions in trade agreements do not undermine these existing flexibilities, as confirmed by the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health.”
 
“The 2011 Declaration clearly recognizes that intellectual property can be a barrier to access to medicines. Everything in the history of the AIDS epidemic testifies to this. Over 80% of people on AIDS treatment in poor countries are taking generic medicines. And yet the United States and the European Union continue to push even greater legal barriers to generic treatment,” said Wim Vandevelde from the European AIDS Treatment Group (EATG).
 
Leaked negotiation texts of the FTA negotiations show that the US and EU are pushing intellectual property provisions far in excess of what developing countries have agreed to in the World Trade Organisation’s Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights or TRIPS. Known as ‘TRIPS-plus’, these measures are contrary to the Doha Declaration which re-affirmed that TRIPS “can and should be interpreted and implemented in a manner supportive of WTO member’s right to protect public health and, in particular, to promote access to medicines for all.”
 
Since 2007, groups have been watching the EU-India FTA negotiations particularly closely. Indian generic companies supply AIDS medicines to nearly 80% of people in developing countries and are the suppliers for 91% of pediatric AIDS medicines. Generic production from India pushed down the price of first line AIDS medicines from $15,000 per patient per year to less than $70 per patient per year today. Now many people living with HIV need to switch to newer AIDS medicines that are already more expensive. 
 
“The EU has been demanding longer patent terms, new monopolies on clinical trial data that prevent the registration of generic medicines, patent enforcement measures and investment rules that allow multinational companies to sue the Indian government over policies promoting affordable medicines,” said Alessandra Cerioli, Chair of LILA - Italian League for the Fight against AIDS.
 
Last month UNAIDS announced that millions would die if India stopped producing generic medicines. While groups have been relieved at announcements by the Indian government that it would resist any such measures, the battleground is shifting to the multiple developing countries that the EU is targeting in other FTA negotiations.
 
“Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Latin America are all facing EU negotiations. Countries like the Ukraine already struggling under an earlier FTA with the US are likely to see data exclusivity terms being extended from 5 years to 11 years,” said Konstantin Lezhentsev from the Ukrainian Community Advisory Board (UCAB). “And not all these governments will be as strong as India. The EU must withdraw all its TRIPS-plus demands from these FTA negotiations. Too many lives are at risk” he added. 
 
Meanwhile in the US FTA negotiations are taking place as part of the negotiations on a Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement (TPPA) between the US and several countries on the Pacific rim including Vietnam and Malaysia. One of the main US demands relates to the ability of developing countries to use a key TRIPS flexibility to prevent frivolous patents from being granted. The health safeguard is included in India’s patents law and was also adopted by the Philippines has been used by health groups and PLHIV networks in India to successfully oppose patents on new forms of old medicines to ensure continued generic production of lamivudine/zidovudine combinations, nevirapine syrup and tenofovir.
 
The TPP text demanded by the U.S. would make it impossible for Vietnam, Malaysia, Peru and Chile, who are in these negotiations, to emulate the Indian example. They will, in fact, mandate that these countries grant patents on small changes made to existing medicines. The US is clearly supporting evergreening – the practice of the multinational pharmaceutical industry of extending their patents well beyond 20 years by simply converting a tablet to a syrup or changing the dose of an existing medicine. Thus, while India was able to reject a patent for the syrup form of nevirapine, a medicine that dates back to the 1980s, Vietnam and Malaysia will not be able to.  The US also wants TPP countries to eliminate pre-grant oppositions, a safeguard that helps prevent abuse of the patent system and unwarranted drug monopolies and is also likely to ask for data exclusivity and longer patent terms. 
 
“The irony of course is that PEPFAR relies heavily on generic medicines to get treatment to developing countries,” said Matthew Kavanagh of Health GAP (Global Access Project). “Yet the United States Trade Representative is pushing greater barriers to life saving generic medicines.”
 
“We have today a global pledge to get 15 million on treatment by 2015. We have the medicines to do it. And now we know that these medicines will also play the most important role in preventing the transmission of HIV,” said Dr. Bactrin Killingo, Africa Program Manager from the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC). “It is immoral, unconscionable, criminal for the US and EU to stop these medicines from reaching the people who need them.”
 
AIDS groups are calling for an immediate halt to the EU FTA and US TPPA negotiations and on the United States and the EU to honour their international commitments to ensure universal access to treatment and to ensure that trade agreements do not undermine developing countries' abilities to use all available legal and policy measures to ensure access to medicines.
 
CONTACT: Wim Vandevelde (EATG)  – wim@eatg.org  +32 491 348 321Matthew Kavanagh (Health GAP) - matthew@healthgap.org +1 202 486 24 88
 
Note for Editors:  The 2011 UN Declaration on HIV and AIDS is available here http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/LTD/N11/367/84/PDF/N1136784.pdf?OpenElement - See paras 35, 36, 51, 66, 71 and 72 of this Declaration.