The health sector is to be excluded from draft European legislation designed to open up the market for services throughout the European Union’s 25 member states. The European Commission in Brussels has decided to radically overhaul its original proposal because of wide ranging opposition to the plans it tabled last year to abolish national restrictions on service providers.
Health equity in economic and trade policies
European Commission drops health from services proposal
Indian patent law 'will signal end of cheap HIV drugs'
Controversial legislation approved by the lower house of India's parliament on 22 March could drastically increase the cost of cheap HIV drugs and other medicines the country produces, according to international humanitarian organisations.The law threatens to affect the provision of healthcare to hundreds of thousands of patients, many of them in Africa, for whom low-cost Indian drugs are the only affordable means of treating AIDS. The new patents bill is intended to bring India's patent regime into line with the World Trade Organization's (WTO) agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (known as TRIPS), one of the conditions of India's membership of the WTO.
Talks On TRIPS and Health Stall As Deadline Nears
Negotiations to expand the availability of medicines under a World Trade Organisation agreement on intellectual property rights by 31 March broke down after informal consultations showed no compromise forthcoming, according to diplomatic sources in Geneva. At issue is an amendment of the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) to allow countries producing generic pharmaceuticals under compulsory license to export those products to other countries in need.
TRIPS, 2005 and access to essential medicines
Following the full implementation of the TRIPS Agreement in 2005 in India and the few other developing countries not yet granting pharmaceutical patents, access to new drugs may be expected to become more difficult, states this briefing paper from Doctors without Borders. "All new drugs may be subject to at least 20 years of patent protection in all but the least developed countries and the occasional non-WTO country such as Somalia, Palestine, and Macedonia. As this will affect producers in key manufacturing countries, such as India, and other countries that are dependent on India for raw materials, it will keep prices up and will likely make new medicines inaccessible for the majority of the population in developing and least developed countries. Generic producers will also be blocked from developing fixed-dose combinations until the relevant patents on the individual components of the combinations expire."
Global and local factors in health equity
The emergence of an increasingly global economy suggests that the ability of individual countries to shape their own destinies is becoming more difficult. International trends and pressures now influence national, and even local, health care policy making. Researchers from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, together with Oxford University, looked at the effect of globalisation on health issues in South Africa and assessed its influence compared to national and local forces. Political and economic developments in the international arena will inevitably influence health issues in South Africa. Institutions such as the WHO and the World Bank, together with international events such as the spread of AIDS, affect health care in the country. However local forces also play a large part in shaping the future of the South African health service.
Global Campaign Against Indian Patent Amendment
Press release
"February 26, 2005 has been named a day of international protest against the actions of the Government of India. People around the world are calling to question the humaneness of a patent modification that permits the private sector to profit from public health. The Indian Patent Ordinance prescribes “TRIPS-PLUS” standards, which takes the country beyond the commitments agreed to under the TRIPS agreement. The Patent act has fostered the pharmaceutical industry in India, provided affordable medication to millions within India and the rest of the developing world. As of December 26, 2005, by Presidential Ordinance, the patent Act has been modified; we now face Product Patent protection for pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals in India."
Further details: /newsletter/id/30834
Global and local factors in South African health policy
The emergence of an increasingly global economy suggests that the ability of individual countries to shape their own destinies is becoming more difficult. International trends and pressures now influence national, and even local, health care policy making. Researchers from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, together with Oxford University, looked at the effect of globalisation on health issues in South Africa and assessed its influence compared to national and local forces. Political and economic developments in the international arena will inevitably influence health issues in South Africa. Institutions such as the WHO and the World Bank, together with international events such as the spread of AIDS, affect health care in the country. However local forces also play a large part in shaping the future of the South African health service.
Health and International Trade Agreements
International Journal of Health Services, 34(3) 467-481
Since the 1980s, neoliberal policies have prescribed reducing the role of governments, relying on market forces to organize and provide health care and other vital human services. In this context, international trade agreements increasingly serve as mechanisms to enforce the privatization, deregulation, and decentralization of health care and other services, with important implications for democracy as well as for health. Critics contend that social austerity and "free" trade agreements contribute to the rise in global poverty and economic inequality and instability, and therefore to increased preventable illness and death.
New Indian Patents Law Threatens AIDS Treatment Access in India and Worldwide
International AIDS activists working for access to affordable AIDS treatment called on the Indian Government to repeal the law that introduced product patent protection on medicines through an Ordinance, promulgated December 26, 2004. "India should be proud to be producing and exporting cheap, generic AIDS drugs for people in need. The changes to the patent law will increase the price of new drugs, as well as some AIDS medicines that are already produced and exported in generic form," said Rolake Nwagwu of Positive Action for Treatment (PATA), Nigeria. "Rising treatment costs will spell disaster for people with HIV in India and around the world." 8,500 people with HIV die daily worldwide due to lack of access to treatment.
Further details: /newsletter/id/30795
PRSPs have not improved health care for the poor
Has health benefited from the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) process launched in 1999 by the international community? The first part of the paper examines the macro-economic constraints on health care financing and considers whether enhanced debt reduction, flexibility on fiscal deficits and the potential for increased aid would alleviate these constraints. The authors conclude that the PRSP process has not lived up to the expectations it has generated.