Alifar Condemns Brazil's Patent Legislation

Representatives of member countries of Alifar, the Latin American umbrella organization for the region's national drug industries, (Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela) of berated the recent passing of new patent legislation in Brazil (Marketletters passim) at their annual meeting held in Asuncion, Paraguay, earlier this month.

They said that rather than protecting the national interest, the Brazilian patent legislation is based on the interests of the group of drug companies that make up Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the US pharmaceutical industry association, and that the consequences of the law will be divestment, destruction of jobs in the sector, and inaccessability of medicines for a number of sectors of the Brazilian population.

Alifar called for Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, which make up the trading region Mercosur, to formulate a common policy on intellectual property which respects the Uruguay Round General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade regulations (Marketletters passim) and which will overcome the damage that they say a law such as Brazil's can provoke. The organization has also denounced the PhRMA's intentions to influence the currently being formed American Free Trade Association.