US Drug Makers Accused of Bullying

The US government and the giant pharmaceutical companies are continuing to bully poor countries to tighten up their patent rules, hampering efforts to obtain cheap medicines for people with diseases such as HIV/Aids, according to a new report.

One year after the historic Doha declaration of the World Trade Organisation, which said that poor countries could put their public health needs before compliance with patent rules and buy or make cheap copies of brand name drugs, Oxfam's review finds that US bullying is partly responsible for the lack of so many of the vitally-needed medicines.

"The findings are damning," says the report. "Overall the number of complaints against developing countries relating to patents and medicines made by the pharmaceutical companies to the US government has not fallen; nor has the number of complaints which the US government takes up."

Each year the US government produces a trade report known as Special 301, in which the trade representative names countries which it considers to have inadequate protection for patents. Being named is a warning of potential trade sanctions.

The USTR named 27 countries in this year's Special 301 report. This is 66% of those that the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America complained about, compared with 61% last year, Oxfam found. The complaints were mainly directed against those countries that manufacture cheap generic versions of patented medicines.

"While many factors conspire to keep medicines out of reach of poor people, it is now widely accepted that unduly restrictive patent protection raises prices and therefore reduces access for poor people," says the report.

"Price discounts by companies can help but generic competition is the only sustainable way of reducing prices and increasing access. This in turn requires a more flexible application of patent law in developing countries. And for this to happen, the US government and pharmaceutical companies must stop their bullying."