PROTESTS AGAINST DUNKEL PROPOSAL

Discontent emerged in the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, as representatives of the national pharmaceutical industries of Argentina, Canada, Egypt, India, the Latin American Pharmaceutical Association (Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Uruguay and Venezuela) and of the National Working Group on Patent Laws from India, met at the GATT headquarters to consider the TRIPs proposals (Marketletters passim).

In their Geneva declaration, the representatives argued that the Dunkel proposal on patents does not reflect a balance among negotiating parties because it only considers the interests of the multinational drug corporations, and that patents are a privilege not an absolute property right, adding that, given the increasing importance that pharmaceuticals play in human health, private property rights must be balanced with the public good.

In formulating its pharmaceutical patent policy, they said, each country must preserve its sovereign right to strike the most appropriate balance between the competing commercial and health care interests at stake, and multinational drugmakers must not be permitted to drive the intellectual property agenda and impose their will in international trade negotiations.