This second article of the series identifies and describes several, often interacting clusters of pathways leading from globalisation to changes in SDH that are relevant to health equity. These involve: trade liberalization; the global reorganization of production and labour markets; debt crises and economic restructuring; financial liberalization; urban settings; influences that operate by way of the physical environment; and health systems changed by the global marketplace.
Health equity in economic and trade policies
Globalization and social determinants of health: The role of the global marketplace (part 2 of 3)
Labonté R and Schrecker T: Globalization and Health 3:5, 19 June 2007
Rwanda: Country notifies WTO of plan to import cheap, generic Aids drugs
Rwanda News Agency, 21 July 2007
Rwanda plans to import a generic HIV/AIDS medicine made in Canada, making it the first country to test a WTO waiver on drug patents. In a submission to the WTO, the country said it expects over the next two years to buy 260,000 packs of TriAvir, a fixed-dose combination of widely used anti-AIDS drugs lamivudine, zidovudine and nevirapine. The generic product is manufactured in Canada by Apotex Inc. This essentially means Rwanda has invoked a never-before-used August 2003 waiver to WTO's intellectual property rules, meant to allow poor countries with public health problems to import generics when they cannot manufacture the drugs themselves.
TRIPS, the Doha declaration and paragraph 6 decision: what are the remaining steps for protecting access to medicines?
Bradford Kerry V and Lee K: Globalization and Health 3:3, 24 May 2007
The World Trade Organisation's Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health (known as the Doha Declaration) of 2001, and subsequent Decision on the Interpretation of Paragraph 6 reached in 2003, affirmed the flexibilities available under the Agreement on Trade Related Property Rights (TRIPS) to member states seeking to protect public health. Despite these important clarifications, the actual implementation of these measures to improve access to medicines remains uncertain. There are also concerns that so-called TRIPS-plus measures within many regional and bilateral trade agreements are further undermining the capacity of the poor to access affordable medicines.
Balancing intellectual monopoly privileges and the need for essential medicines
Martin G, Sorenson C, Faunce T: Globalization and Health 3:4, 12 June 2007
This issue of Globalization and Health presents a paper by Kerry and Lee that considers the TRIPS agreement and the recent policy debate regarding the protection of public health interest, particularly as they pertain to the Doha Declaration. This editorial considers the debate, examines issues of enacting, implementing and monitoring TRIPS provisions and identifies questions that should be considered by key stakeholders in ongoing discussions.
Globalization and social determinants of health: The role of the global marketplace (part 2 of 3)
Labonte R, Schrecker T: Globalization and Health 3:6, 19 June 2007
Globalization is a key context for the study of social determinants of health (SDH): broadly stated, SDH are the conditions in which people live and work, and that affect their opportunities to lead healthy lives. In the first article in this three part series, we described the origins of the series in work conducted for the Globalization Knowledge Network of the World Health Organizations Commission on Social Determinants of Health and in the Commissions specific concern with health equity.
In defense of national interest: Uganda's reform process for Industrial Property Legislation
Mpeirwe A: Coalition for Health Promotion and Social Development (HEPS Uganda) and Panos Eastern Africa, 2003
Uganda is currently preoccupied with reforms for its commercial laws. The
patent law is one of the laws under reform. A draft bill known as the Industrial Property bill is pending submission to cabinet at the time of writing. This report explains the process of reform of the patent law and traces the genesis of the process, stakeholders involvement, as well as the driving force for the reforms.
TRIPs and Public Health: The Doha Declaration and Africa
Haakonsson SJ, Richey LA: Development Policy Review 25(1): 71-90, January 2007
The Doha Declaration on the TRIPs Agreement and Public Health (2001), aimed at improving access to medicines, especially for HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in developing and least developed countries, has not yet been used for compulsory licences to import generic medicines or for expanding production for export to poor countries. By analysing HIV/AIDS treatment in Uganda, this article discusses the variety of TRIPs-related channels for ensuring drugs for domestic treatment, and argues that emphasising the restrictive nature of TRIPs provisions fails to grasp the scale of the obstacles involved. Lack of domestic resources leaves African countries dependent on donor financing, which in turn constrains their ability to exploit international trade provisions.
A call to the 2007 G8 Summit to support African national health plans and comprehensive health workforce strategies
African Council for Sustainable Health Development (ACOSHED), African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF)
The full call and signatories are found here to this call from African organisations to the G8 presented in the editorial section of the newsletter.
Further details: /newsletter/id/32346
Brazil breaks Merck Drug Patent in major victory for AIDS activism
AIDS Healthcare Foundation, 4 May 2007
Amid news that the President of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, today will announce Brazil’s intention to issue a compulsory license for Merck’s HIV/AIDS drug Efavirenz, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest US provider of HIV/AIDS healthcare, education and prevention and operator of free AIDS treatment clinics in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean and Asia, hailed the move as a victory for global AIDS activism and AIDS patients worldwide.
Development and Intellectual Property under the EPA Negotiations
South Centre Policy Brief 6, March 2007
The negotiations for Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) between the EU and the African Caribbean and Pacific Countries are likely to result in additional layers of intellectual property right protection, at least in the case of the agreement with Cariforum countries. A review of the ongoing negotiations and various draft texts and papers demonstrates an inadequate focus on the need for technological development, promotion of public health, protection of genetic resources and traditional knowledge as well as for ensuring access to knowledge. Considering the level of economic development in ACP countries, the negotiations should not include IP rights as part of the partnership agreement. Instead they should focus on industrial and technological development and aim to address the longstanding issues on various EU policies that have impeded participation of the ACP countries in the value-chain of products, protection of biodiversity and traditional knowledge and the use of TRIPS flexibilities.