CANADIAN GENERICS THREATENED BY GATT

13 January 1992

Negotiations are scheduled to resume this week in Geneva on proposals made in the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade to extend patent protection for pharmaceuticals from ten to 20 years in all 108 GATT signatory states, including Canada, the only western nation still operating a compulsory licensing system for pharmaceutical products.

Canada's negotiators in Geneva have come under constant pressure during the talks to step into line with the rest of the industrialized nations on the levels of patent protection which it is prepared to offer. However, health care officials and consumer groups in the country are dismayed by these developments, believing that the destruction of this system which would result from Canada's adoption of 20-year cover would create monopolies for the multinational pharmaceutical companies, forcing the generic manufacturers out of business and increasing the prices of drugs to the consumer.

The 20-year cover proposal, which has been put forward by GATT director-general Arthur Dunkel, is being regarded as an attempt to break the year-long deadlock over Canada's record on drug patent protection which has bedevilled the current five-year Uruguay Round of GATT negotiations.

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