MSF launches attack on European Commission for blocking cheap drugs

09.10.2010 [21:59]
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Baku, October 9 (AZERTAC). The EC is seeking a trade agreement with India which will restrict its generic companies from making cheap copycat drugs for poor countries, says MSF, which launches a campaign to oppose this and other allegedly restrictive EC practices today, Guardian reported

In 2001, with the signing of the Doha declaration, it was widely thought that the battle for cheap drugs for developing countries had been won. The declaration effectively created a benign loophole in the medicine patent rules. Indian and other generics companies could be licensed to make cheap copies of patented HIV and other drugs to sell to poor countries.

But it`s not all over, by any means, according to campaigners for access to medicines. The foremost NGO among them, Médecins Sans Frontières, is today accusing the European Commission of aggressively pushing policies - including a trade agreement with India - that will dry up the flow of cheap drugs to those who badly need them in poor countries.

A three-month campaign, called "Europe! HANDS OFF our medicine", launched today, invites people to let the EC know they object through a web platform which allows them to send an email to the Trade Commissioner, Karel De Gucht. "If you continue to pursue your actions, people who rely on these medicines to stay alive will be left without a lifeline and many are likely to die," it says.

Tough language, but MSF believes the stakes are high and argues that the EC has been doing the bidding of the multinational drug companies (who want to protect their drug monopolies) for some time and in a number of ways.

MSF launches attack on European Commission for blocking cheap drugs

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