Doha Declaration has failed to deliver cheap drugs to developing countries, Oxfam says

Efforts to improve access to drugs for people living in poorer countries have failed despite a worldwide agreement designed to tackle the issue, it has been claimed.

Oxfam has published a report on the fifth anniversary of the Doha Declaration, and claims that little has changed and in some cases things have worsened since the agreement was made dealing with the trade related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS).

The formal trade declaration, aimed at putting health before profits, has not worked, says the report, and in a debate held last week in London to coincide with the report launch, a motion saying “This house believes that the Doha Declaration delivered what is needed from TRIPS in terms of access to affordable medicines” was overwhelmingly rejected.

All members of the World Trade Organisation signed up to the declaration in 2001, which asserted that intellectual property rules should not prevent countries from protecting public health.

Oxfam says that the behaviour of rich countries has “ranged from apathy and inaction to sheer determination to undermine the Doha Declaration.”

It goes on to say that thousands of people are still dying because they are unable to obtain cheaper, generic versions of costly patented medicines.

Since 2001, the report adds, things have become worse and more than 4 million people were newly infected by HIV in 2005, and cancer and diabetes was increasingly affecting people in developing countries.

The World Health Organization says that 77% of Africans still have no access to AIDS treatment, and 30% of the world's population still do not have regular access to essential medicines.

Oxfam's Make Trade Fair campaign head Celine Charveriat said: “Rich countries have broken the spirit of the Doha Declaration. The declaration said the right things but needed political action to work. That hasn't happened. We've gone backwards. People are still suffering or dying needlessly.”

Ms Charveriat added that one of the reasons for this was that rich countries, particularly the United States, were bullying developing countries to impose stricter intellectual property rules to preserve drug monopolies. This restricted generic competition and kept prices high.

Other rich countries, particularly those among the European Union, had quietly consented to US actions.

During the debate, Harvey Bale, director general of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations, who argued for the motion, rejected many of the claims made in the Oxfam report.

“I do believe the Doha Declaration has resolved the flexibilities that countries under the agreement have used for drugs, whatever healthcare problems they need to address. More than 140 countries have all said that the Doha Declaration has delivered in terms of access to affordable medicines. How can you second guess the opinions of over 150 trade and health ministers?”

Arguing against the motion, John Sulston, vice chair of the UK Human Genetics Commission, said: “My impression is that realistically, what we are seeing is an obfuscation by interests designed to protect the high profits of the pharmaceutical industry rather than providing health, particularly to poorer people.”