November 14, 2006: Report: Rich Countries and Large Drug Makers Blocking Poor’s Access to Affordable Medicine

Oxfam publishes a report concluding that poor people in developing nations are dying needlessly because drug companies and the governments of certain wealthy nations are putting a higher priority on defending intellectual property rights than protecting human life. According to the report, the United States has used free-trade agreements and threats of sanctions to prevent countries from producing and distributing low-cost generic drugs in order to preserve the monopolies of large drug companies. Likewise, the drugs makers themselves are pushing countries to prevent the sale of cheaper drugs. “Pfizer is challenging the Philippines government in a bid to extend its monopoly on Norvasc, a [blood] pressure drug. Novartis is engaged in litigation in India to enforce a patent for Glivec, a cancer drug, which could save many lives if it were available at generic prices,” the Guardian reports. The Oxfam report says that efforts to block the poor’s access to affordable medicine undermines the five-year old Doha declaration, which sought to improve poor countries’ access to cheap drugs. “[R]ich countries have failed to honor their promises. Their record ranges from apathy and inaction to dogged determination to undermine the declaration’s spirit and intent. The US, at the behest of the pharmaceutical industry, is uniquely guilty of seeking ever higher levels of intellectual property protection in developing countries,” the report says. [Guardian, 11/14/2006; Oxfam, 11/14/2006 ]