Copyright 2000 The Chronicle Publishing Co.
The San
Francisco Chronicle
MAY 11, 2000, THURSDAY, FINAL EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A1
LENGTH: 869 words
HEADLINE:
Defiant Clinton Approves Cheaper AIDS Drugs for
Africa
BYLINE: Marc Sandalow,
Washington Bureau Chief
DATELINE: Washington
BODY:
President Clinton issued an executive order
yesterday to make inexpensive drugs more available in
AIDS-ravaged Africa, rejecting a plea from
pharmaceutical companies to protect their profitable patents.
The order
would allow countries to produce or import generic AIDS drugs,
without fear of trade retaliation, in a region that accounts for one-tenth of
the world's population and more than 70 percent of its AIDS
cases.
The action came after an amendment containing nearly identical
language was stripped from a larger Africa trade bill that is
likely to pass Congress this week. California Senator Dianne Feinstein, author
of the amendment, threatened to filibuster the bill unless steps were taken to
make affordable medication more available.
Feinstein applauded the
president's action during an emotional speech on the Senate floor, in which she
detailed the toll of AIDS on Africa, where
more people have been infected with HIV than reside in the state of California.
"How can we provide economic growth and opportunity to sub-Saharan
Africa if we ignore the fact that the region is facing its
worst catastrophe of this century?" Feinstein said, tears welling up.
Pausing periodically to compose herself during a 90-minute address,
Feinstein recalled San Francisco's tribulations with AIDS from
her days as mayor and excoriated the drug companies for trying "to squeeze every
last drop of profit from the suffering of millions of HIV/AIDS
victims in sub-Saharan Africa."
"Why, given that it
represented a commonsense approach . . . did my amendment meet such stiff
opposition?" Feinstein wonderered aloud, before placing the blame on drug
company lobbyists.
"After long and hard consideration, I have concluded
that there can be only one possible answer to that question -- profits and
corporate greed."
The high-stakes debate pits the need of
poverty-stricken Africans for drugs against the entrepreneurial rights of the
drugmakers who have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to develop them.
The president's order, which mirrors Feinstein's legislation, states
that the United States will not seek to overturn "any intellectual
property law or policy" imposed by a sub-Saharan African government
that promotes access to HIV/AIDS pharmaceuticals and medical
technologies. In other words, a country that seeks to produce or import a
generic version of a patented AIDS drug will not face trade
sanctions from the United States.
"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.
"This executive
order is intended to help stop the spread of HIV/AIDS in
sub-Saharan Africa by making AIDS-related
drugs and medical technologies more accessible and affordable," she said.
Alan Holmer, president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers
of America, 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," Holmer said in comments quoted by the Associated Press.
"But weakening intellectual property rights is not the
solution."
Feinstein noted that the $1,000-a-month cost
of AIDS treatment in the United States is many times higher
than the annual income of many African victims, a problem she said is
exacerbated by an industry blindly driven by profits.
She used the
example of one drug, fluconazole, used to treat a common fungal infection in
HIV-positive people, which is available as a generic drug in Thailand for
$1.20 a day but sold in March for $17.84 a day
in Kenya and South Africa, where the only supplier is Pfizer.
(Pfizer however, she noted, has recently agreed to provide free fluconazole to
South Africa).
"Simply put, the pharmaceutical
companies which manufacture HIV/AIDS drugs would prefer to be
able to sell drugs for $18 a dose rather than
$1 per dose, with the additional $17 going
straight to fattening the bottom line."
Representatives from the
pharmaceutical industry did not return phone calls to respond to Feinstein's
criticisms. But they have previously insisted that their intellectual
property rights must be protected to provide the incentives necessary
to encourage costly research and development of AIDS-fighting
drugs.
Some drug manufacturers have also maintained that the free
distribution of drugs will lead to misuse and might spur the growth of a
drug-resistant strain.
"I don't know how they sleep at night, I really
don't," Feinstein said of the drug company lobbyists who blocked her amendment.
"I'm sorry for my show of emotion, but I've seen people die of
AIDS."
"I remember, as mayor of San Francisco, trying
to manage this disease in its early days, when cause, let alone treatment, was
unclear," she said. "When HIV/AIDS was devastating our
community, and many, many promising young people -- many of them my friends --
were struck down in the prime of their lives.
"So in some small way, I
think I understand what policy makers in any sub-Suharan African countries are
going through now."
GRAPHIC: PHOTO
LOAD-DATE: May 11, 2000 
