Health Action International Report Examines Impact of Trade Agreements on Consumers' Access to Drugs

In the Health Action International (HAI) publication, Power, Patents and Pills recently released, a number of consumer representatives suggest that intellectual property agreements made by the GATT and World Trade Organization (WTO) may have negative implications for the health of many consumers and could limit or deny them access to pharmaceuticals, particularly essential drugs.

This unique report is drawn from presentations made at a one-day seminar held in Bielefeld, Germany last year. The meeting was a direct response to the resolution passed at the 49th World Health Assembly in 1996 which called on the World Health Organization (WHO) to report on the impact of the WTO's work regarding national drug policies and essential drugs and to make recommendations for collaboration between the two organizations.

Power, Patents and Pills highlights some consumer concerns regarding international trade agreements. The report includes summaries of the following presentations:

• An Introduction to GATT and WTO
  by Dr. Zafar Mirza, Association for Rational Use of Medication, Pakistan
• Trade and Pharmaceutical Policies-A US Perspective
  by James Love, Center for the Study of Responsive Law, USA
  
• WTO/GATT and Medicines: WHO's Perspective
  by Dr. Colette Kinnon, WHO
  
• The TRIPs Agreement and Pharmaceutical Policies
  by Adrian Otten, WTO
  
• Heads-TNCs Win, Tails-South Loses or the GATT/WTO/TRIPs Agreement
  by Dr. K. Balasubramaniam, HAI Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific
  

HAI believes that access to essential drugs should be the guiding principle used to assess the impact of intellectual property rights on pharmaceuticals. HAI calls for alternative models to patent protection to be put forward and for public discussion on research and development decisions. The organisation believes countries should be able to interpret intellectual property agreements to give the greatest benefit to their consumers.

HAI has created an international working group on the WTO to ensure that rational drug policies prevail and that the WTO becomes more transparent. This publication is part of HAI's international campaign on GATT/WTO and the implications for essential drugs policies.

To find out how to order a copy of the publication, Power, Patents and Pills,send an e-mail to HAI-Europe: info@haiweb.org