The
World Trade Organization (WTO) was formed on January 1, 1995 to regulate trade
between member countries, settle trade disputes between nations, and act as a
forum at which governments negotiate trade agreements.
Rules
of trade are set at the WTO and each of the 146 member countries signs those
agreements and is required to abide to them by formulating trade policies that
are in-line with WTO trade rules or agreements.
One
of the responsibilities of the WTO is to ensure the protection of ideas created
by people, and it does this under what is known as Trade Related Aspects of
Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). Intellectual property refers to legal
entitlements aimed at protecting ideas or information that someone or some
people generated. This is done in order for those who generated it to benefit
from their ideas, and reinvest their profits in research and development. Their
ideas may be in form of a manufactured product (e.g. a drug), or written in
books. One of the ways in which WTO protects intellectual property under TRIPS is
through patent system.
Regarding
access to essential drugs, the existence of a patent system encourages
pharmaceutical companies to introduce new drugs and do more research and
development work. However, some people have argued that there is need for
striking a balance between the production of new
drugs, and addressing public health problems by ensuring that people in poor
communities and countries have access to those drugs. Basically, under TRIPS,
member states of the WTO are required to grant pharmaceutical companies 20-year
monopolies on all technological innovations and to submit to a binding system
of WTO dispute resolution; and countries who are or will become TRIPS-compliant
and who wish to lower drug prices by introducing available generic drugs into
their domestic markets must either obtain the consent of patent-holders or work
within the framework set forth in the TRIPS agreement (Human Rights Watch
2002).
This
has created a major problem concerning AIDS treatment and TRIPS today.
Countries that have been hardest hit by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, particularly
African nations, have called for an examination of the tension between the
intellectual property regime and the global health crisis in order to address
HIV/AIDS crisis. However, pharmaceutical companies, with support from some
industrialized countries, do not agree – instead they argue that the patent
system is essential, because it enables them reap what they sowed, which they
then re-invest in pharmaceutical research and development. In doing so,
pharmaceutical companies argue, they promote public health.
The
pharmaceutical companies sell AIDS drugs at exorbitant prices, which in turn limit
people, especially poor people, from accessing this life prolonging treatment. When
Brazil and India looked at the rising numbers of people living with HIV/AIDS in
their countries who were in need of ARVs, they
decided to start producing cheap generic AIDS drugs in order to save lives. This
move did not go well with pharmaceutical companies and some few developed
countries. In spite of that opposition, Brazil and India continued with their
production of generic AIDS drugs to date. As a result, these two countries have
registered successes with regard to provision of AIDS treatment to, and
improving lives of, people living with HIV/AIDS.
After
observing what was happening in Brazil and India, African countries sought
permission from the WTO to be allowed to purchase generic AIDS drugs from India
and Brazil. This met with opposition from the U.S., which feared that its pharmaceutical/ drug companies would lose control of
their patents. But in the end WTO granted African countries permission to
procure drugs from the above-mentioned countries, but by following certain
protocols.
The
Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has since embarked on a mission,
outside of the WTO, of signing bilateral and multilateral agreements with
different countries in order to protect patents of its pharmaceutical
companies. Some have expressed concern at this development, because of its clear
hindrance to public health by way of limiting access to health care and health
care technologies (Human Rights Watch 2007). This would obviously result in
deaths that could have been delayed if ARVs were made
available. Other resultant effects, such as an increase in the number of
orphans in communities, and lowering economic growth of poor countries, are well
known.
What needs to be done?
- More advocacy
is needed to strike a balance between the international patent system
under TRIPS of the WTO and greater access to antiretroviral treatment by
people living with HIV/AIDS, so that many people living with HIV/AIDS who do
not have access to ARVs can receive treatment.
- Encourage governments to disavow
trade agreements or policies that would undermine their obligations to
ensure that their citizens are accorded their right to health and have
access to health care services.
- Ask governments to make use of the provisions
of the same TRIPS, which allows them to issue licenses, by issuing
licenses to pharmaceuticals to produce cheap generic ARVs
as one way of safeguarding public health.
- Appeal to pharmaceutical companies to
consider generating more cheap AIDS drugs for people in low-income
countries.
- Advocate for more funding from rich
nations and the donor community that should go towards production and
distribution of antiretroviral drugs, as well as research and development.
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