Copyright 2000 Times Mirror Company
Los Angeles
Times
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May 11, 2000, Thursday, Home Edition
SECTION: Part A; Part 1; Page 8; Foreign Desk
LENGTH: 644 words
HEADLINE:
U.S. TO HELP TREAT AIDS IN AFRICA;
HEALTH: CLINTON'S EXECUTIVE ORDER WILL BOOST AVAILABILITY OF AFFORDABLE
DRUGS, MEDICAL TECHNOLOGIES IN SUB- SAHARAN NATIONS. MOVE DRAWS PROTEST FROM
PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY.
BYLINE: NICK ANDERSON, TIMES
STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
BODY:
As the AIDS epidemic
continues to ravage sub-Saharan Africa, President Clinton
issued an executive order Wednesday meant to help nations in the impoverished
region obtain inexpensive drugs and medical technologies to treat the disease.
The presidential order, which could be overturned after Clinton leaves
office in January, would bar the U.S. government in most cases from seeking to
reverse policies in sub-Saharan nations that would require distribution of
AIDS drugs or other treatments at lower cost.
Pharmaceutical companies have come under increasing pressure to allow
countries facing an AIDS emergency to license generic versions
of otherwise costly drugs or import those drugs at lower cost. The companies
maintain that they are trying to cooperate but that they must also preserve
revenue from sales to help pay for research in the race to develop
AIDS vaccines and a cure.
"This order will give
sub-Saharan governments the flexibility to bring lifesaving drugs and medical
technologies to affected populations," Clinton wrote in a letter to Sen. Dianne
Feinstein (D-Calif.), who has sought congressional action on the issue.
Feinstein and other senators have tried to improve the availability of
AIDS drugs in Africa through an amendment to a
pending trade bill supported by the Clinton administration. The president's
order was timed in part to firm up support in the Senate for the bill, which
would give more than 70 countries in Africa, Central America
and the Caribbean greater access to U.S. apparel markets.
Clinton's
order lends the authority of the U.S. government, acting through its trade and
commerce agencies, to efforts to solve a desperate dilemma: More than 22 million
people in sub-Saharan Africa are believed to have the human
immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, which can lead to acquired immune deficiency
syndrome, or AIDS. But most of the Africans and their
governments cannot afford the latest drug treatments.
As he issued the
order, Clinton said his action was consistent with international agreements that
safeguard the property rights of high-tech exporting companies.
The
pharmaceutical industry disagreed. The order "sets an undesirable and
inappropriate precedent by adopting a discriminatory approach to
intellectual property laws and focusing exclusively on
pharmaceuticals," Alan Holmer, president of the Pharmaceutical Research and
Manufacturers of America, said through a spokesman.
Defending its
record, the industry group said it is developing 102 drugs--including 11
vaccines--to treat AIDS and AIDS-related disorders and has
brought 61 drugs onto the market in the past 13 years.
Clinton's order
defused a threat by Feinstein to mount a filibuster against the trade bill,
which last week passed the House and this week is expected to pass the Senate.
But it did not stop Feinstein from taking to the Senate floor to vent
her outrage that her proposal to promote the availability of
AIDS drugs in Africa recently was jettisoned
from the trade bill in final negotiations on the measure.
Accusing
lobbyists for pharmaceutical companies of waging a stealth campaign to defeat
her proposal, Feinstein said: "I don't know how these people sleep at night. I
really don't."
In an emotional speech, Feinstein rattled off the grim
litany of AIDS statistics in Africa. She said
she could empathize with the region's plight because of her own experience in
dealing with the disease as mayor of San Francisco during the 1980s.
"The virus has already killed more than 11 million sub-Saharan Africans.
. . . And nobody cares," Feinstein said. "We must make every effort to get
appropriate medicine into the hands of those in need."
Unlike Clinton's
order, which could evaporate under a new president, Feinstein's amendment would
have made the AIDS drug-availability policy a matter of law.
LOAD-DATE: May 11, 2000 
