A new international agreement to stop piracy can prevent poor countries from gaining access to essential medicines, writes Pehr Olov Pehrson MSF and Maud Jackson from Forum Syd.
This week, representatives of several countries met in Seoul in South Korea to negotiate the so-called Actaavtalet, Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, which aims to prevent piracy of music, among other things, brand bags and medicine.
Drugs that may contain incorrect ingredients, and thus pose a health risk must be stopped, but Acta will make it difficult for poor countries access to essential medicines.
A major problem in negotiations is the lack of transparency. Sweden has represented the EU in recent negotiations. But the Swedish principle has been completely absent. Although some information has leaked, the media have completely missed to consider the implications of the proposals.
Increased international attention paid to fake medicines, counterfeit, but the concept is often used incorrectly to describe any kind of copying. The current international trade, TRIPS, aims to protect producers from brand theft rather than to stop fake medicines. The currently proposed measures are not adapted to the problem of drugs can be dangerous because of poor quality. Instead, the term so broad that measures preventing access to the legally copied medicines of good quality, so-called generics, which many people in poor countries depend.
The health risks of counterfeit medicines can lead used as an argument for the imposition of restrictive trade rules, which prevent competition with cheaper generic drugs. The issue of patent protection is expected to be a part of the agreement, which is worrying, because the allegations of patent infringement against the use of generics manufacturers.
Concern is also the reference to customs restrictions, similar to those currently used in Europe. According to these legitimate generic drugs are seized because of suspected patent infringement. In the short term, this implies a risk to patients in need of essential medicines are without or have to interrupt their treatment. The new controls can lead to drug producers are forced to take less secure and more expensive routes to not get stuck in Europe.
Therefore require other actions to combat the problem of counterfeit medicines and the far larger problem of substandard drugs. And that regardless of whether they are patented or legally copied drugs, or counterfeit copies.
Public health reasons may not be used to strengthen the patent. It is particularly important to avoid further restrictions on access to medicines is the Doha Declaration on intellectual property and public health. An agreement to which Sweden is a signatory.
Sweden must also, on behalf of the EU, require greater transparency and make the draft agreement public, while opening up the dialogue with civil society.
Most important of all: the pharmacies for the world’s poor need to have good-quality medicines at affordable prices.
