SAMPLE 1

HIV, Free Trade and access to life saving medicines

Currently there are 15 million of people living with HIV (PLHIV) in low and middle-income countries in need of Antiretroviral treatment. However, only 36% of theses PLHIV (5.6 million) are able to access the treatment they need. Despite the dramatic measures the world has taken towards HIV, these figures came up after more than 25 years of global response.

The efforts to improve treatment coverage are challenged on several fronts, including the reduction in global aid funding. However the impacts of the Free Trade Agreement negotiations between the developed and developing countries on access to treatment have often been overlooked. Specifically the ways in which these trade agreements greatly jeopardize the production of generic ARV drugs, which has played a critical and vital role in improving treatment access for PLHIV in resource limited settings.

At the moment that this submission is written, European Union and Country Aare under negotiation process to sign a Free Trade Agreement to enhance trade relationship between the two countries. The pool level of transparency throughout this negotiation process left no space for civil society to monitor or be involved. Civil society groups from all around the world have not been able to receive any official information regarding the agreement documents. In essence, negotiations about people’s lives are taking place behind the door.

However, through the leaked text of this negotiation, the civil society groups have been able to analyze the agreement and have been taken aback by the extent of “trading” this negotiation will reached.

Country A has been called as the pharmacy of the developing world. The Country A generic ARV production has supplied to more than 90% of PLHIV in low & middle-income countries in the world. TheCountry A generic ARV production provided ARV drugs to almost all the region in the world, including Africa, where the HIV epidemic hits the hardest.

It is estimated that, if the generic ARV production and supply by Country Adisrupted at the same time, without any other countries to compensate its production supply capacity, then within 5-8 years, we will start to see at least 5.5 million PLHIV dying in the developing world. In other words, Country Ageneric drugs have served as the life-line for many people whom otherwise would have been dead by this point.

Problematic Clauses

There are at least 6 problematic clauses in the text agreement that experts have analyzed and predict significant issues to affordable generic ARV production in Country A.

  1. DATA EXCLUSIVITY, as it will not permit the placing of affordable versions of new formulations, pediatric doses and combinations of “off-patent” medicines on the market.
  2. PATENT TERM EXTENSION, as it will extend patent life beyond 20 years.
  3. INVESTMENT RULES, as it will enable foreign companies to take Country A government to foreign courts over domestic health policies like tobacco warnings and measures to reduce prices of medicines.
  4. BORDER MEASURES, as it will deny medicines to patients in other developing countries with custom officials seizing generic medicines in transit.
  5. INJUCTIONS, as it undermines the independence of the Country A judiciary to protect right to health of patients over pharma profits.
  6. OTHER IP ENFORCEMENT MEASURES, as it pits third parties like treatment providers at risk of police actions and court cases.

The impacts of such trade agreement not just country A and other developing countries cannot be underestimated. As such, protests against the agreement have risen in different regions and the world. The people from country A called the agreement “trading away our lives”; the Country B condemned the EU effort to take benefit from developing countries and enrich their pharmaceutical company; the Country C called the agreement “a genocide”; the Latvians marched and critics their leaders for agreeing to such agreements; the Country D stood up and shouted “EU! go away!” to stop EU to take their medicines away.

The EU stated “nothing in the agreement would stop country A to produce cheap generic medicines” and also further stated that it is fully committed to promoting and facilitating access to medicines while negotiating free trade agreement s that have provisions mentioned above. Over the last few years, generic ARVs that have been shipped from country A or Y to African countries that transited in European countries have been ceased without proper clarification or trial process. All these have been “justified” on the grounds that production of generic medications infringes the patent rights of the big pharmaceutical companies, yet, overlooking the fact that those generic medications have all been produced legally within their production countries. Boarder measures, such as this greatly endangers the lives of millions of people around the world, who relies on those medications to sustain their health and lives.

Laws are developed and implemented to ensure that people are protected from behaviors and situations that which endanger their lives and their rights, including their rights to health. While countries have the responsibilities to ensure economic development of its states through measure such as FTA, at the same time, when such economic policies put human lives at stake, such policies cease to be for the benefit of its people.