WTO countries agree draft deal on cheap medicines

A draft accord on measures to ease access to cheap medicines for poor countries was clinched yesterday between key World Trade Organisation (WTO) countries and is expected to be approved by the full membership today.

Endorsement by the WTO's ruling general council will bring to an end nearly two years of wrangling over the issue, which has cast a shadow over the Doha global trade round and threatened to poison the atmosphere at the WTO's ministerial conference in Cancun, Mexico, in two weeks.

The draft aims to allay the fears of the US pharmaceutical industry that a deal agreed last December by all other WTO members could undermine patent rules. The US blocked agreement on that deal, claiming it would allow generic producers in countries such as India and Brazil to flood the market with cheap copies of patented drugs.

The agreement hammered out between the US, Brazil, India, South Africa and Kenya, and approved by their respective governments yesterday, is in the form of a statement by the chairman of the WTO's general council that would accompany the December text. Mr Faizel Ismail, South Africa's WTO representative, said the statement "provides some comfort to the US pharmaceutical companies that were worried about abuse".

The December text sets out the conditions under which patents can be waived to enable poor countries without manufacturing capacity of their own to import cheap generic drugs for serious health problems, including Aids, tuberculosis and malaria.

The chairman's draft statement says the December accord should be implemented "in good faith to protect public health" and not for "commercial policy objectives". It also emphasises the need for measures to prevent diversion of cheap drugs to western markets.

In addition, most members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have agreed to opt out of the system, as have countries that will join the European Union next year.

However, DC Shah, chairman of the Indian pharmaceutical alliance, said yesterday that the deal was unworkable and a thinly disguised attempt by the US to price generics manufacturers out of the market.

Health and development campaigners also criticised the proposed accord.