In the Spirit of the Doha Declaration

It is half a decade since the Doha Declaration. The declaration states that developing countries must use public health safeguards written into the World Trade Organization’s intellectual properties rules to access less expensive, generic versions of patented medicines.
How come then Novartis instituted a lawsuit against a company in India for producing generics of the anticancer drug, Glivec? The generic costs about $2,700 yearly per patient while Glivec costs $27,000 for the same time period.
Pfizer is fighting the Philippines government for approving a generic of the antihypertensive, Norvasc. The generic costs 90% less.
Oxfam International released a report recently stating that rich countries have broken the spirit of the Doha Declaration (see www. Oxfam.org for a copy of the report, Patents versus Patients: Five Years after the Doha Declaration). The report states that many wealthy countries go to great lengths to protect medicine patents putting profits before patients. As a result, patented medicines continue to be priced out of the reach of the world’s poorest people.
It is instructive to remember that the burden of disease continues to rise especially in poor countries. For instance, between 2001 and 2005, more than 4 million people became newly infected with HIV in developing countries. Yet, 74% of AIDS medicines are still under monopoly, 77% of Africans have no access to AIDS treatment and 30% of the world’s population does not have access to essential medicines.
In the spirit of the Doha Declaration, the Oxfam report concluded with some recommendations which I agree with and summarize in my own words below:
1. Wealthy countries should live up to their promise and relax the strict intellectual properties laws as regards patented medicines.
2. Rich countries should muster the political will to provide technical support that will enhance universal access to essential medicines
3. Leaders in developing countries should become responsible and explore, with a view to invoking, the “public health safeguards written into the WTO’s intellectual property rules” in order to abolish differential access to medicines.
4. Pfizer and Norvatis should, if not in the spirit of the declaration, for the sake of corporate social responsibility, end their feud with developing countries.