Pressure groups on Tuesday demanded that the WTO simplify the rules under which governments can import and producers export generic copies of drugs under patent, to tackle fears of a flu pandemic.
The groups, including Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), argue that easing the rules would encourage more producers to manufacture generic drugs under so-called compulsory licensing. Urgently needed drugs would become more widely available should the bird-flu virus change so that it can pass easily between humans.
The campaigners cite Tamiflu, which is produced by Switzerland's Roche Holding AG and is considered the only drug likely to be effective in an outbreak of the bird flu disease in humans. Governments have been scrambling to stockpile the drug in case of a pandemic.
"Tamiflu illustrates the danger of patent monopolies -- you have a shortage of a drug and don't have an easy remedy for a disease. This is exactly the situation when countries would have to use compulsory licenses for import and export," said Ellen 't Hoen, who directs the campaign for access to essential medicines at MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders.
She said WTO rules were "not sufficient and robust enough to deal with public health crises."
Under WTO rules, countries can issue compulsory licenses to disregard patent rights but only after negotiating with the patent owners and paying them adequate compensation. If they declare a public health emergency, governments can skip the negotiating.
Initially the production of such generic drugs was strictly limited to domestic use. But in a decision in August 2003, the WTO for the first time allowed generic drugs under compulsory licenses to be exported, albeit under very strict conditions.
Although the decision was a response to poor countries' growing need for cheap generic drugs to tackle epidemics such as HIV/AIDS, critics now say that the complicated procedure to export such drugs has put off generic manufacturers.
"The rich countries congratulate themselves ... but in reality it does not bear fruit. In reality it removes the economic incentive for generic production," 't Hoen said.
Another issue is that many rich countries, including the US and the EU, opted out of the 2003 decision, meaning they would be unable to import generic drugs made under compulsory license even if they wanted to build up stocks against a disease outbreak, such as a flu pandemic.
Consumers International demands that countries that opted out be allowed to opt back in.
India has already said that it would consider using compulsory licensing to allow its drugmakers to copy Tamiflu.
Indian drugmaker Cipla Ltd -- which says it has developed a generic version of Tamiflu -- has applied to Roche for permission to copy the flu drug, but has pushed the Indian government to invoke compulsory licensing anyway.
A Taiwanese official said the country had no plans to begin manufacture of the Tamiflu because it has not yet received permission from Roche, even though many Taiwanese scientists are reportedly already able to produce Tamiflu copies in the laboratory.
Roche says it is considering a number of requests to make licensed versions, but did not elaborate.
ENDEAVOR MANTA: The ship is programmed to automatically return to its designated home port and would self-destruct if seized by another party The Endeavor Manta, Taiwan’s first military-specification uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) tailor-made to operate in the Taiwan Strait in a bid to bolster the nation’s asymmetric combat capabilities made its first appearance at Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor yesterday. Taking inspiration from Ukraine’s navy, which is using USVs to force Russia’s Black Sea fleet to take shelter within its own ports, CSBC Taiwan (台灣國際造船) established a research and development unit on USVs last year, CSBC chairman Huang Cheng-hung (黃正弘) said. With the exception of the satellite guidance system and the outboard motors — which were purchased from foreign companies that were not affiliated with Chinese-funded
PERMIT REVOKED: The influencer at a news conference said the National Immigration Agency was infringing on human rights and persecuting Chinese spouses Chinese influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣) yesterday evening voluntarily left Taiwan, despite saying yesterday morning that she had “no intention” of leaving after her residence permit was revoked over her comments on Taiwan being “unified” with China by military force. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday had said that it could forcibly deport the influencer at midnight, but was considering taking a more flexible approach and beginning procedures this morning. The influencer, whose given name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), departed on a 8:45pm flight from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to Fuzhou, China. Liu held a news conference at the airport at 7pm,
Authorities yesterday elaborated on the rules governing Employment Gold Cards after a US cardholder was barred from entering Taiwan for six years after working without a permit during a 2023 visit. American YouTuber LeLe Farley was barred after already being approved for an Employment Gold Card, he said in a video published on his channel on Saturday. Farley, who has more than 420,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel, was approved for his Gold Card last month, but was told at a check-in counter at the Los Angeles International Airport that he could not enter Taiwan. That was because he previously participated in two
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat