Developing countries will find it harder to import cheap generic drugs because of trade deals with the EU, according to development campaigners, despite claims from the European Commission that the agreements will take account of medical needs.
The first of the new generation of trade deals, economic partnership agreements (EPAs), was signed by the Commission and 14 Caribbean countries on 15 October. The Commission is hoping to sign similar agreements with African and Pacific countries before the end of next year.
According to Carlos Correa, an expert on intellectual property rights (IPR) at the University of Buenos Aires, the Caribbean agreement “will make it more difficult for poor people to get access to medicines”. He blames IPR provisions in the EPA, which will require border-control officials in developing countries to check that imported goods do not violate patents held by European companies. The IPR provisions need to be implemented by January 2014, unless both the Commission and the Caribbean countries agree to extend the deadline.
Trips
Correa says that the provisions go beyond World Trade Organization (WTO) rules on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (Trips), which require checks only for trademark counterfeiting and copyright piracy, not patent violation.
Correa fears that it will be difficult in practice for border officials to know whether or not a shipment violates patents. He says this means “developing countries may take a long time” to investigate and clear shipments. He also fears that the provisions could be seized upon by pharmaceutical companies, which might demand rigorous checks to impede shipments and limit the amount of generic drugs on the market. The Third World Network, a campaigning non-governmental organisation, shares these concerns and says that the agreement “may interrupt the medicine supply”.
The Commission denies the charge. It argues, in its own analysis of the EPA, that the agreement “clearly states that the capacity of the parties to promote access to medicines should not be impaired”. It also says the EPA provides that enforcement of IPR should “take into account the development needs” of Caribbean countries.
Alexandra Heumber of Médecins Sans Frontières says that, irrespective of EPAs, developing countries wanting to import generic drugs already face formidable obstacles. The WTO agreed a waiver from normal IPR rules in 2003, allowing governments to issue compulsory licences for companies to produce generic drugs, without patent-holders' consent, and export them to developing countries.
