An accord on the controversial issue of access to life-saving cheap medicines at the World Trade Organisation is ”fairly close”, the chief executive of US drug company Pfizer, Henry McKinnell, said on Monday.
In an interview with AFX, the AFP financial news service, McKinnell said he had been involved in talks with the WTO Director General Supachai Panitchpakdi at the World Economic Forum here on the issue of the WTO’s Trips (trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights) agreement on patent protection and public health.
”When we talk to each other, we in principle agree. The problem now is to reduce that to writing,” he said, adding that they were ”fairly close to agreement”.
Deadlocked talks on allowing countries without pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity access to cheaper medicines are due to resume at WTO headquarters in Geneva on Tuesday.
The 144-member trade body last month failed to meet an end-2002 deadline to seal such an agreement due to objections by the United States over the scope of illnesses which would be covered. The other 143 WTO members then accepted a deal allowing the poorest countries to sidestep patent law and import generic versions of drugs to treat Aids, malaria, tuberculosis and other epidemics.
The pharmaceutical industry is not directly involved in the talks between governments, although the US has been accused by its opponents of siding with major drug companies.
Supachai told journalists here on Sunday that an unidentified group of countries was poised to make a proposal that could unlock the talks aimed at providing cheaper access to life-saving medicines for the world’s poorest countries.
”I cannot tell you exactly from where, because the group of countries have not yet made this proposal, but I have been consulted on the possible options being developed at the moment,” Supachai said. – Sapa-AFP