The international NGO Oxfam has lambasted the European Union (EU) and the US for using the issues such as proliferation of substandard, dangerous medicines in poor countries as an excuse to tighten Intellectual Property (IP) rules, boosting the profits of large pharmaceutical companies while making it harder for poor people to get access to the medicines they need.

The NGO, a confederation of 14 organizations working together in 98 countries against poverty and injustice, in a recent report said that the EU and the US continue to focus almost exclusively on eliminating counterfeit medicines which form only a small part of this public health problem – but which are a serious concern for their multinational companies. They have used the crisis in medicine quality in developing countries as an excuse to push for new IP rules that will boost the profits of pharmaceutical giants at the expense of affordable medicines for the poor.

The NGO is particularly critical of the EU for “pushing for stricter levels of IP protection that would limit access to medicines. In many cases, these efforts have been supported - both tacitly and overtly - by the multinational pharmaceutical industry”.

Improved regulation of medicines by poor countries, rather than enforcement of IP rules, is the best way to ensure the supply of safe, effective and quality medicines, claims the study, which is entitled Eye on the Ball and was launched at a conference in Paris last week hosted by INTERPOL and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Paris.

Rich countries express concern about this threat to public health but the actions they propose will do little to address this problem, according to Oxfam, which points specifically to calls from wealthy nations for poor countries to enact expanded IP rules to reduce the availability of counterfeit products that criminally infringe trademarks.

The report argues that the anti-counterfeit measures are limited in scope and fail to address the broader public health problem of substandard and falsified medicines which pose a danger to public health but do not necessarily infringe IP rights. And worse, new anti-counterfeit measures will stifle the production of and trade in low-cost generic medicines.

The report also called upon the rich countries to abandon their focus on expanded IP protection and instead provide funds to support drug regulation in poor countries.

“Poor countries are facing a crisis of substandard and falsified medicines that can harm or even kill those who take them. Yet rather than help poor countries address the problem to ensure safe, effective and quality medicines for all, rich countries are putting commercial interests ahead of public health in these countries,” said Rohit Malpani, senior policy adviser at Oxfam.