AFRICA: Activists "frustrated" by delays in WTO talks JOHANNESBURG, 7 January (PLUSNEWS) - World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks held late last year failed to resolve the issue of access to generic medicines in developing countries after the United States blocked an agreement on granting easier access to the drugs. The United States insisted on an additional restriction, to limit the agreement to HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and similar major epidemics. Cancer, heart disease, asthma, and hundreds of other illnesses would have been excluded. Developing countries would not accept this restriction. Soon after the WTO meeting, Washington announced they would only temporarily allow nations to override American drug company patents and export inexpensive, generic versions of brand-name pharmaceuticals to help African and other developing countries. In November 2001, the WTO meeting in Doha, Qatar, agreed that developing countries should, under international rules, be able to produce their own generics to deal with public health emergencies, without permission from the companies that hold the patents. Many poor nations, however, asked that they be allowed to import generics. WTO members pledged to resolve that issue by the end of 2002. But AIDS activists have become frustrated with the constant wrangling and delays. "Its a tragedy that there is no solution after one year of talks ... millions of people have died from [infectious] diseases this year. The rich countries don't realise how much this has affected poor countries," head of international affairs for treatment lobby group Act-Up Paris, Gaëlle Krikorian, told PlusNews. The US move to ease drug patent rules for only a certain period of time was still a "problem", Krikorian said. "This is the proposal they came up with last year [2001] after Doha. Its better for them because it is not legally based, but it is not a sustainable solution and not something we can really trust," she added. According to Krikorian, failure to reach an agreement at the end of last year was caused by the US's "total refusal" to cooperate within the WTO framework. "We must condemn the US in the strongest terms, their delays have exposed their brutality towards people who need access to life-threatening drugs," Treatment Action Campaign treatment literacy coordinator Sipho Mthati, told PlusNews. Despite these setbacks, treatment activists in Africa had looked upon the whole process with "much hope", Mthati said. "The Doha declaration was a landmark for access to treatment, especially in the area of HIV/AIDS," she noted. The declaration was the "best opportunity" for ensuring that the agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) retained some "humanity" and did not violate basic human rights. Governments from developing countries, however, were not doing enough. "There has not been enough pressure from them. We cannot see any reason why the African Union didn't club together and push the issue," she said. Negotiations will start again early this year, and the countries hope to reach agreement by 11 February 2003. [ENDS] IRIN-SA Tel: +27 11 880-4633 Fax: +27 11 447-5472 Email: IRIN-SA@irin.org.za [This Item is Delivered to the "PlusNews" HIV/AIDS Service of the UN's IRIN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations. For further information, free subscriptions, or to change your keywords, contact e-mail: Plusnews@irinnews.org or Web: http://www.irinnews.org/aidsfp.asp . If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Reposting by commercial sites requires written IRIN permission.] Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2003