The Brazilian government is on a collision course with three multinational drug companies. It has threatened to declare HIV/Aids a national health emergency, enabling it to manufacture patent drugs.
Brazilian Health Minister Humberto Costa told journalists last week the government would break patent laws if negotiations with Rocha, Merck and Abbott failed to reduce the prices of Aids drugs used in a treatment cocktail.
“This should not be considered an illegal act,” said Costa. “We don’t want to fly a political flag; we just want to defend the right of all our people to anti-retroviral treatment.”
Brazil supplies free anti-retrovirals (ARVs) to about 150 000 people at a cost of $350-million a year — which Costa said was unsustainable. More than three-quarters of the cost is spent on three imported drugs.
If negotiations failed, the minister said the government would use a compulsory licence to bypass patents and reproduce drugs. This would be the first use of the exemption to intellectual property law agreed during the World Trade Organisation’s Doha round in 2001, allowing developing countries facing a health emergency to issue compulsory licences.
Brazil changed its law in 1996 to compel the state to provide free ARVs in health-care facilities. Its 180-million population has an HIV prevalence rate of 0,67%, making it an important market for drug companies.
The South American country is also driving an international network of six states to share technological skills on developing drugs. The South African Health Ministry ignored the invitation to be part of the network, whose members are Brazil, Ukraine, Thailand, Nigeria, China and Russia.
“South Africa was contacted from the beginning to join but did not manifest any interest,” said Mariangela Galvao of the Brazilian Health Ministry.
She said it was important for developing countries to strengthen their drug-manufacturing capacity because ARVs were still too expensive. “The network does not threaten any pharmaceuticals now, but we are going to be a threat.”