Missing the Target #5: Improving AIDS Drug Access ... - CD8 T cells

MoroccoBy Othman MelloukMorocco has taken bold steps during recent years toimprove access to medicines. This includes theintroduction of a new health insurance scheme andpromotion of the use of generic drugs. However,ensuring the sustainability of access to treatment and avoiding the negative impactof new intellectual property (IP) protections the country has recently adopted posemajor challenges.Before 2000, Morocco had no patent legislation concerning pharmaceuticals. Thisenabled the Moroccan pharmaceutical industry to flourish and develop into thesecond largest pharmaceutical industry in Africa, after South Africa. In 2000, thelocal pharmaceutical industry was able to cover 72.2 percent of national needsand sell generic medicines at 10 to 80 percent of the cost of the equivalent brandnameproducts. But as a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Moroccoin 2005 amended its IP law to be in compliance with the WTO TRIPS agreement.While the TRIPS agreement and the WTO Doha Declaration allow countries to adoptsafeguards to protect public health and access to medicines, the new MoroccanIP law did not take into consideration all of these possible protections. Under thenew legislation, recourse to parallel import is not allowed, compulsory licences aresubject to restrictions, and there is no mention of the Bolar provision (which reducesdelay in the registration of generic drugs). Also excluded from the new law wasmention of the August 30, 2003 WTO declaration allowing exportation of locallyproduced generic drugs. Lack of this provision inhibits generic production of ARVs,since the Moroccan market is too small to justify investment in ARV productionunless there is also an export market.Moreover, the Morocco-United States free trade agreement (FTA), signed in March2004 and effective in January 2006, imposes additional intellectual propertyprotections that constrain rights afforded by the WTO agreements. The FTA textdismantles the flexibilities reaffirmed by the WTO Doha Declaration on TRIPS andPublic Health, such as compulsory licensing or parallel importation, and introducesrules that curtail Morocco’s ability to take measures to reduce the cost of medicines:• Extension of the patent term,• Limitations on parallel imports of patented drugs,• Data exclusivity, and• Marketing authorization restrictions.81