Thirteen countries joined forces Wednesday to adopt a tax on plane tickets to raise money to fight Aids and other killer diseases, Reuters reported, despite resistance from airlines. Brazil, Britain, Chile, Congo, Cyprus, France, Ivory Coast, Jordan, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mauritius, Nicaragua, and Norway have now agreed to raise or started raising a sum from air tickets to help the poor, they said in a closing statement.
Health equity in economic and trade policies
13 countries join forces on air ticket tax for poor
USAToday/ Reuters: 1 March 2006
Africa vows to resist after GM ruling
Business Report (South Africa) via Tralac
The US may push Africa to accept genetically modified (GM) food now that the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has ruled the EU broke rules by barring GM foods and seeds, however, Africans vowed yesterday to resist.
Bush USTR head Bob Portman violates executive order that protects Africa from trade pressures on medicine patents
The Huffington Post: Love J: 1 March 2006
James Love, describes his "discussion with trade officials and public health groups from Southern Africa about the most recent round of negotiations involving the United States Trade Representative (USTR). Rob Portman, the head of the USTR, is violating a May 10, 2000 Presidential Executive Order, which prohibits the USTR from pressuring countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to have rules for intellectual property rights on medicines that exceed the norms set out in the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Free trade and AIDS drugs
New York Times Editorial, 28 March 2006
Southern African governments have a special need to make or buy low-cost generic drugs to save their citizens. World trade rules are amenable, containing safeguards that allow countries to use generics to preserve public health. But the Bush administration is now negotiating a free trade agreement with the Southern African Customs Union. This article further discusses its implications ; that the United States should not, in the process, restrict the ability of poor people to get generic drugs in these countries.
Indian hero's new mission: to bring cheap drug for bird flu to millions
Binyon M: The Times (London): 6 March 2006
Yusuf Hamied, head of Cipla, India's huge generic drugs company, has stirred global controversy by promising to supply Aids drugs for less than $1 a day. Now he has announced that he is ready to take on bird flu. At issue, again, is the whole question of generic versus proprietary drugs, an issue that has pitted Western capitalism against Third World campaigners and, perhaps more than any other dispute, cast moral opprobrium on multinationals attempting to protect the fruits of their expensive research.
NEPAD and the World Trade Organisation - the close link
Mare J: NEPAD Secretariat Weekly Newsletter: 10 March 2006
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has as its primary goal the liberalisation of world trade. Given the expected accompanying expansion of trade and the enormous potential of such improved trade and investment flows for stimulating economic growth and development, it becomes clear that the activities of the WTO are of central relevance to the implementation of the goals of NEPAD.Recent events in both NEPAD programmes and WTO activities give particular cause to focus on the close linkages between the WTO and NEPAD.
Tanzania MPs concerned about junk goods flooding local markets
IPPMEDIA: Via Tralac
Tanzanian Members of Parliament have expressed disappointment with the influx of substandard and low quality foodstuffs into the country. This brief article voices concern for consequent adverse health outcomes. Sources said that some of the "dumped" foodstuffs were harmful to human life.
Toward a treaty on safety and cost-effectiveness of pharmaceuticals and medical devices: enhancing an endangered global public good
Faunce TA: Globalization and Health 2006, 2:5
Expert evaluations of the safety, efficacy and cost-effectiveness of pharmaceutical and medical devices, prior to marketing approval or reimbursement listing, collectively represent a globally important public good. The scientific processes involved play a major role in protecting the public from product risks such as unintended or adverse events, sub-standard production and unnecessary burdens on individual and governmental healthcare budgets. Most States now have an increasing policy interest in this area, though institutional arrangements, particularly in the area of cost-effectiveness analysis of medical devices, are not uniformly advanced and are fragile in the face of opposing multinational industry pressure to recoup investment and maintain profit margins. This paper examines the possibility, in this context, of States commencing negotiations toward bilateral trade agreement provisions, and ultimately perhaps a multilateral Treaty, on safety, efficacy and cost-effectiveness analysis of pharmaceuticals and medical devices.
WHO plea to drugs companies
Boseley S: The Guardian, 4 April 2006
Drug companies should not take out patents on their new medicines or enforce patents in poor countries if that is likely to prevent patients from getting them, an influential commission set up by the World Health Organisation said yesterday.
Counterfeit medicines: the silent epidemic
WHO News Release
WHO is calling for immediate action to combat the growing trade in counterfeit medicines, which now forms 10% of the global market for medicines. WHO aims to create a global task force to focus on legislation and law enforcement, trade, risk communications and innovative technology solutions, including public-private initiatives for applying new technologies to the detection of counterfeits and technology transfer to developing countries.