Copyright 1999 The Chronicle Publishing Co.
The San
Francisco Chronicle
DECEMBER 6, 1999, MONDAY, FINAL EDITION
SECTION: EDITORIAL; Pg. A26; EDITORIALS
LENGTH: 210 words
HEADLINE:
Getting AIDS Drugs Around the World
BODY:
ONE OF the heartening developments out of
last week's World Trade Organization summit was progress in the effort to get
AIDS drugs to poor countries.
President Clinton
announced at the Seattle conference that his administration would loosen what
had been a near-absolutist defense of U.S. patent rights on pharmaceuticals. The
president said exceptions would be made in cases involving a major health
crisis.
The epidemic of AIDS in developing countries
is, by anyone's definition, a major crisis. About two-thirds of the 33.6 million
people infected with the AIDS virus on the planet live in
Africa.
The new administration policy effectively
clears the way for developing countries to force a drug company to license its
patent to a local manufacturer or for those countries to shop the world market
for the cheapest drug prices when public health is at risk.
The drug
companies have resisted this flexible approach, arguing that future research
would suffer if their prices on successful drugs could be undercut. At the
current prices, however, developing countries are buying few if any of these
AIDS drugs.
This is a global crisis that demands the
sense of urgency and flexibility that finally will be reflected in U.S. trade
policy.
LOAD-DATE: December 6, 1999
