With the US blocking of an agreement on a global pact to allow poor countries to buy cheaper versions of patented drugs to tackle epidemics at the recently concluded Geneva talks has almost dashed the hopes raised at the Doha meet last year. The talks are now scheduled for this February but no serious change in the US position should be expected. The deadline for agreement on the issue of production for export of drugs was one of the first targets set by the Doha Round and with the failure of the talks at Geneva now, a shadow has been cast over the rest of negotiations to be concluded by 2005. In Doha, the trade ministers had agreed that poor nations facing health crises should be able to set aside intellectual property laws or patent rights and order domestic companies to manufacture cheaper versions of the needed medicines. It was also suggested that as many developing countries, particularly African nations where AIDS are killing millions of people every year, should have the right to import essential medicines from the producing countries. As per the latest UN report, the number of people suffering from AIDS has gone up to 40 million in the world today and out of that as many as 30 million are in Africa alone. The number of people suffering from other major diseases like TB and malaria could also be as big as this. And it is a fact that most of the African and several Asian countries do not have domestic manufacturing facilities for drugs.

The US stand at Geneva was that the proposed pact on import of drugs went beyond what member countries agreed to last year in Doha. It feels that the reference to the import of drugs for AIDS, TB, malaria and "other epidemics" could cover any health problem and could undermine the international patent system. This US position is dictated by the interpretation of the powerful drug multinationals and is based only on their commercial interests. There are indeed a number of deadly diseases other than AIDS, TB and malaria affecting lakes of people in poor countries. Therefore, the paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health needs to be flexible enough. It is absolutely unjustifiable, on one hand, to agree to allow compulsory licences in a country with a manufacturing facility and at the same to disallow a nation with no manufacturing capacities to import the drugs from a producing country in a health emergency. Lack of drug manufacturing capability should not be a reason to discriminate and deny access of essential medicines to people of a country. A stand like this by the richest and the most powerful country in the world is a human right violation.