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Access to Generic Drugs is a Human Rights issue

News Release

News Release

La version française sera affiche bientôt

Access to Generic Drugs is a Human Rights issue

MONTREAL - November 6, 2003 - Parliament must ensure that proposed amendments to Canada's Patent Act clearly advance the human right to health, says Rights & Democracy.

In a recent letter addressed to Pierre Pettigrew, Canada's Minister of International Trade, Rights & Democracy said it is of primary importance that the federal government take immediate measures to facilitate the developing world's access to inexpensive, high-quality generic medications. The letter, signed by Jean-Louis Roy, President of Rights & Democracy, notes that Canada is duty-bound to do so as one of the countries that has ratified of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), and the right to the highest attainable standard of health (article 12) enshrined therein. Canada's obligations under the ICESCR include ensuring "the creation of conditions which would assure to all medical services and medical attention in the event of sickness."

Canada's support for the Ministerial Declaration on Public Health at the World Trade Organization talks in Doha in November, 2001, as well as the August 30 agreement reached at the WTO in Geneva, prevents the Canadian government from limiting access to generic medications to a designated list of prominent diseases like HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis or malaria. Important as those diseases are, each country's right to define its public health needs and priorities are clearly upheld in this Declaration. In light of this fact, there is no justification for limiting the medications that would be available to poor countries under Canada's new patent laws.

Limitations on which countries are authorized to import generic medications must be flexible and capable of addressing the complex situations developing countries often face. For this reason, the position adopted by the WTO's Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Council on August 30 should establish the bare minimum for alterations to Canada's patent laws.

While commending Canada for its decisive role in seeking to improve the developing world's access to affordable medications, Mr. Roy encouraged the Canadian government to take extra steps to secure a central place for human rights in the context of global commerce.

"Only with due attention to human rights can we establish a world trading system that is fair and also benefits the poorer countries," said Mr. Roy. "Canada and the other developed nations have the power and the duty to ensure the developing world and its citizens have access to these medicines. Canada can and must act quickly to allow and encourage its pharmaceutical industry to export the necessary drugs to countries that need them most."

"If the amendments to Canada's Patent Act live up to the purpose of improving access to affordable medicines in developing countries, it will be a major step forward for international human rights."