Firms accept Ecuador plan to break pharma patents

Firms accept Ecuador plan to break pharma patents
October 29, 2009

Foreign pharmaceutical firms including Pfizer agreed Wednesday to accept Ecuador's decision to bypass patents on 2,000 drugs in order to produce them locally or buy cheaper versions elsewhere.

"We accept the democratic decision... to legally implement this extraordinary measure," the 14 companies including European and American giants such as Bayer and GSK said through the local pharmaceutical industry association.

"No legal right is superior to the requirements of public health, especially in such serious circumstances," the association statement added.

Last Friday the South American nation's socialist government led by President Rafael Correa decided to break 2,214 patents, issue "compulsory licenses" to local laboratories and pay foreign labs compensation of up to 10 percent of net sales of the drugs.

According to a report from research firm Intercontinental Marketing Services (IMS), foreign firms control about 82 percent of the Ecuadoran pharmaceutical market valued at some 720 million dollars annually.

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http://www.terra.net.lb/wp/Articles/DesktopArticle.aspx?ArticleID=485191&ChannelId=6

Monday, October 26th 2009 - 3:14 am UTC

Ecuador overrides 2.000 pharmaceutical patents considered “indispensable”

Ecuador made public on Sunday a presidential decree overriding over 2.000 pharmaceutical patents in order to provide more affordable medicines to the people of Ecuador.

President Rafael Correa who had anticipated the measure said that access to medicine is a "human right" and that he intended to seek "compulsory licenses" to acquire medications considered indispensable.

Under current World Trade Organization rules, countries have the right to seek such "compulsory licenses" that override traditional patent rights. Current WTO rules require that such countries negotiate with the patent owners to determine fair compensation.

“All those pharmaceutical products we can produce and copy, we will elaborate in Ecuador”, said Correa.

With this decision the Ecuadorian government wishes to promote local production of medicines thus avoiding “the huge profits of trans-nationals”, based on an industrial and intellectual property system which Correa defines as “neo-liberal”.

More:
http://en.mercopress.com/2009/10/26/ecuador-overrides-2.000-pharmaceutical-patents-considered-indispensable