THE OFFICIAL WEB SITE OF THE MADISON TIMES WEEKLY NEWSPAPER

Compiled By Heidi M. Pascual

• Activists claim victory on export of generic drugs

TORONTO (IPS/GIN) — Canada is on the verge of passing a law that would allow makers of genetic medicines to produce and export relatively inexpensive versions of patented, brand-name products to developing countries trying to deal with serious epidemics. Parliament recently approved legislation formally introduced last November after then-Prime Minister Jean Chretien pledged to legalize the export of generic copies to countries that could otherwise not afford costly drugs to fight HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and other diseases. The proposed law, which is scheduled for debate and possible ratification in the Senate, Canada's upper chamber, has drawn mixed reviews.

Stephen Lewis, the United Nations envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, said that the removal of a highly controversial right-of-first-refusal provision is a significant victory for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and people in developing countries who cannot afford costly patented medicines. The clause would have given brand-name manufacturers the first right to fill shipment deals arranged by generic firms. Generic drug makers and humanitarian groups warned that the provision could lead to brand-name firms blocking exports of generics, potentially pricing medicines out of reach of the people who most need them.

"I've come tentatively to the conclusion that the government has by and large honored the position it took last September, when it announced the legislation," Lewis said. He added that time will tell if other amendments to Bill C-9 will unduly restrict the participation of some countries or limit the list of approved medicines.

Richard Elliott, research director with the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network in Toronto, said he applauds the deletion of the right of first refusal. "That was a huge sticking point, and one of our most fundamental criticisms of the bill," he said.

However, the government added a "noncommercial" amendment to the bill that would give patent holders the right to sue generic companies that sell a particular drug for more than 25 percent of the Canadian list price. Elliott said this could potentially increase the leverage of brand-name drug companies.

Generic firms would have loopholes. They could argue, for instance, that the price they are charging is in line with their manufacturing costs plus 15 percent. But, said Elliott, the amendment gives brand-name firms in an already litigious industry yet another reason to go to court — in this case to cancel a generic producer's license to copy and export a particular patented drug.

"It may or may not be the case that 25 percent of the price is appropriate. But if it goes above 25 percent, then the litigation is invited," Elliott said. He described the amendment as "part and parcel of a larger 'big pharma' agenda of pushing stronger intellectual property standards."

Officials say the amendment is intended to ensure that prices remain affordable.

"We recognize that the generics should be making some type of return in order to encourage their participation, and we think that 25 percent allows for that," said Eric Dagenais, director of patent policy with Industry Canada, the government department that led the drafting of Bill C-9. Twenty-five percent is not a fixed cap, he said, but a figure that would ensure wider scrutiny if it was exceeded.

— Saul Chernos  

• Balkan newsmen say free media is needed for reconciliation

BELGRADE, Serbia (IPS/GIN) — Independent local media are essential for reconciliation in the Balkans, journalists meeting here declared on Press Freedom Day, May 3. Local media are "essential to provide trustworthy information that is vital for peace and reconciliation efforts," according to the declaration, which was adopted after a two-day meeting organized by the U.N. Education, Science, and Culture Organization (UNESCO).

More than 150 participants from around the world called on UNESCO to reinforce its coordinating role in supporting media initiatives in conflict and post-conflict zones.

The meeting was followed by a regional conference May 4 on media in post-conflict and transition countries. This meeting was organized jointly by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and UNESCO.

"It is not by chance that Belgrade was chosen for those events," Vuk Draskovic, foreign minister of Serbia and Montenegro, told journalists. "Our recent past bears the marks and the scars of all the problems journalists face in the war zones, under repression, and in poverty and isolation."

These are the first major international media conferences to be held in Belgrade in 20 years.

Draskovic, himself a journalist and a writer, was one of the opposition leaders in the 1990s, when the former Yugoslavia was destroyed by Western-backed civil wars. Yugoslavia was run then by Slobodan Milosevic, ousted from power in a 2000 coup.

Under Milosevic's regime, a number of journalists were killed for writing against the wars and his politics, while a part of media was turned into propaganda machinery. This media justified the wars against the secessionists, which took the lives of an estimated 200,000 people. Milosevic said Belgrade was fighting to protect Serbs in the breakaway states Bosnia and Croatia, which were receiving much Western aid.

The process of reconciliation between the nations that fought the wars has barely begun.

Media professionals who attended the conference on “Media in Conflict and Countries of Transition” agreed with UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura that "freedom of expression and freedom of the press are prerequisites for the participation of citizens in the democratic lives of their societies." — Vesna Peric Zimonjic  

END OF INTERNATIONAL NEWS