UK Backs Poor Nations Over Medicine Patents

The government has backed the main conclusions of its commission on intellectual property rights and explicitly accepted that poor countries should be allowed to buy or make cheap versions of patented medicines, such as Aids drugs, and other goods such as plants and seeds.

But although the chairman of the commission said he was delighted that the government accepted most of his report yesterday, campaigners were disappointed by the government's muted response.

They accused it of bowing to the interests of pharmaceutical companies and missing an opportunity to push for reform, particularly of the World Trade Organisation rules on patents due to come into force in 2005.

The commission on intellectual property rights (CIPR) was set up in May 2001 to investigate how patent systems that could help development could be introduced in poor countries. It concluded that the sort of patent protection enshrined in the laws of rich countries should not be imposed on developing nations.

The CIPR and the charity Médicins Sans Frontières have found that competition from copycat generic companies lowered the price of badly needed, expensive medicines.

Oxfam campaigners have already expressed concern about the interpretation of the new trade rules. Talks intended to encourage poor countries to exercise their right to override patents where necessary have reached a stalemate.