Canada issues WTO compulsory license for HIV/AIDS drug

Rwanda has come closer to becoming the first nation to use a World Trade Organization procedure designed to allow developing countries to import cut-price copies of patented drugs, when the Canadian Intellectual Property Office issued a compulsory license authorizing the generic production of a patented HIV/AIDS drug for export to the central African country, the International Center for Trade and Sustainable Development reports on its web site (www.ictsd.org).

Richard Elliott, executive director of the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, said: "this is [a] big step forward in finally getting at least one affordable medicine from Canada to a developing country in need." However, the fact that this is the first such move in the three years since Canada introduced a legal system for making such exports possible demonstrates the need to simplify the process to make it more efficient and effective, he argued.

The CIPO granted permission to Apotex, Canada's leading generic drugmaker, to manufacture and deliver 260,000 packs of Apo-Triavir, a fixed-dose combination of three drugs under patents held by UK-based drugmakers GlaxoSmithKline and Shire and Germany's Boehringer Ingelheim, at cost to Rwanda's health authorities. The ICTSD states that this is equivalent to the requirements for 21,000 HIV/AIDS patients for a year. Both GSK and Shire have waived their right to royalties due to Rwanda's ranking on the United Nations' Human Development Index. The generic manufacturer states that the drug will cost $0.41 per tablet, compared to $20 per tablet in the USA for the branded equivalent.