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From Poverty to Power Green, Oxfam 2008 - weman

From Poverty to Power Green, Oxfam 2008 - weman

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FROM POVERTY TO POWERPrices for some key medicines, including first-line ARVs, have fallensharply in recent years. But newer antiretroviral medicines, neededbecause they are more effective or <strong>to</strong> overcome <strong>to</strong>xicity or resistance <strong>to</strong>first-line medicines, are often ten times more expensive. In addition,developing countries face an increasing burden of non-communicabledisease – according <strong>to</strong> WHO, over 80 per cent of deaths from noncommunicablediseases <strong>to</strong>day occur in developing countries.New medicines <strong>to</strong> treat cancer, heart disease, and diabetes, patentedaggressively by the industry, are priced out of reach of poor people.The pharmaceutical industry continues <strong>to</strong> aggressively seek <strong>to</strong>enforce patents and <strong>to</strong> charge high prices for medicines in low- andmiddle-income countries across Asia and Latin America, keepingmedicines unaffordable for millions of poor people. When countriesrecently tried <strong>to</strong> use TRIPS safeguards, it again jumped all over them,even returning <strong>to</strong> the aggressive legal tactics that had earned it such ablack eye a few years previously. Novartis and Pfizer becameembroiled in legal disputes in India and the Philippines respectively,while Thailand’s decision <strong>to</strong> issue a compulsory licence for its secondlineHIV medicine Kaletra prompted Abbott Pharmaceuticals <strong>to</strong>de-register seven new medicines from the Thai market. Abbott wascharging patients nearly $2,200 per year for the drug. 71Rich countries are also working <strong>to</strong> render the public healthsafeguards in TRIPS meaningless by including more stringent patentrules in bilateral agreements. The US–Jordan FTA, signed in 2000,required Jordan <strong>to</strong> agree rules on so-called ‘data exclusivity’, whichblock the registration and marketing approval of generic medicinesfor five or more years, even when no patent exists. Data exclusivity hasdelayed generic competition for 79 per cent of medicines launchedby 21 multinational pharmaceutical companies between 2002 andmid-2006 that otherwise would have been available in an inexpensive,generic form.Partly as a result of such TRIPS-plus rules, medicine prices in Jordanhave increased drastically, threatening the financial sustainability ofgovernment public health programmes. Stricter levels of intellectualproperty protection have conferred few benefits with respect <strong>to</strong> FDI,domestic R&D, or accelerated introduction of new medicines.330

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