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Search Terms: intellectual property, AIDS, Africa

Document 102 of 197.

May 11, 2000, Thursday

SECTION: NEWS;Pg. A-12

LENGTH: 452 words

HEADLINE: Clinton order boosts availability of AIDS drugs for African nations; Can import, make generic versions without penalty

BYLINE: HEARST NEWS SERVICE

BODY:
WASHINGTON -- President Clinton signed an executive order yesterday designed to encourage African nations hit by the HIV and AIDS epidemic to import and manufacture inexpensive generic versions of drugs to fight the disease.

The order halts any U.S. government move to penalize African nations if they violate intellectual property laws by manufacturing or importing cheaper generic AIDS drugs.

The president's action codifies into law a bill that Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein of California and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin tried unsuccessfully to include in an African trade bill likely to pass Congress this week.

"Given the devastating impact of AIDS, the United States will not require or negotiate restrictive rules in the intellectual property rights area," said U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky.

Feinstein said yesterday the president's order "strikes a proper balance between the need to enable sub-Saharan governments to increase access to HIV/AIDS pharmaceuticals and the need to ensure that intellectual property is protected."

She also said the order is consistent with World Trade Organization rules, which give countries flexibility on intellectual property laws if they are facing a public health crisis.

U.S. drug makers have opposed efforts to erode their patents on expensive AIDS drugs.

Alan Holmer, president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, said the pharmaceutical industry agreed with the president on the need for incentives to develop new AIDS medicines.

But he criticized the executive order for adopting a "discriminatory approach to intellectual property laws" and focusing exclusively on pharmaceuticals. "We recognize that AIDS is a major problem, but weakening intellectual property rights is not the solution."

Feinstein, in an impassioned speech yesterday on the Senate floor in which she stopped several times to wipe away tears, blamed Republican Senate leaders for stripping the drug measure from the African trade bill last week, calling it "really unconscionable."

She said Africa is facing a "health emergency of monumental proportions," with 5,500 people in Africa dying each day from AIDS.

About 34 million people in sub-Saharan Africa have been infected -- equivalent to the population of California -- and 11.5 million have died, representing 83 percent of the world AIDS deaths since the epidemic began nearly two decades ago.

"The destruction caused by HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa by far surpasses the devastation caused by famine, war and even genocide in Rwanda," she said.

"The HIV/AIDS crisis is driving families in Sub-Saharan Africa, worn down by widespread poverty, to the brink of disaster."

LOAD-DATE: May 15, 2000

Document 102 of 197.


Search Terms: intellectual property, AIDS, Africa
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