Leahy Presses For U.S. Congressional Action
On Proposal To Foster Low-Cost Drugs
For The World's Poorest

WASHINGTON (MONDAY, Aug. 14) - U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) is pressing for action on legislation he introduced that would advance production of low-cost versions of life-saving medicines for millions of people in the poorest nations.

The issue of providing these vital medicines to developing countries is one of several global health topics expected to be discussed at the XVI International Aids Conference in Toronto, Canada, which convenes this week.

 

Leahy said he will seek hearings on his Life-Saving Medicines Export Act, (S.3175), which he recently introduced in the U.S. Senate.  The bill would allow U.S. generic drug firms to manufacture low-cost generic versions of patented medicines for export to nations in need, when a voluntary agreement between the generic and the brand-name U.S. company cannot be negotiated.  Those patent holders would get royalty payments, and the generic firms would then be required to sell those less-expensive drugs only to the poorest countries.

"Our society too often acts as if we are powerless to do anything about the fact that the high price of many life-saving medicines - medicines that we take for granted - are beyond reach for millions of the world's most vulnerable people," said Leahy.  "Today 5 percent of the world's people consume 91 percent of the world's pharmaceuticals. Imagine if you, or a loved one, were dying and you knew the medicine to cure the disease exists and costs only a few dollars, but you have no way to get it or to pay for it.  That is a reality for millions of people today."

"The need for these medicines is clear and present, but the market to provide them is not," said Leahy.  "The incentives in this bill would help change that."

Leahy's bill would amend U.S. patent law to allow implementation of the low-cost drug provisions of a 148-nation agreement completed last year.  The Bush Administration itself has not proposed any implementing legislation, even though former U.S. Trade Ambassador Rob Portman called the agreement "a landmark achievement that we hope will help developing countries devastated by HIV/AIDS and other public heath crises," and his office has said this approach will "allow countries to override patent rights when necessary to export life-saving drugs."  Leahy is the Democratic leader of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees patent laws.  He will seek hearings by the committee on his bill.

The bill addresses the extremely low rate of treatment of a wide variety of diseases for which there are pharmaceutical cures and treatments.  Leahy said infectious and parasitic diseases remain the major killers of children in the developing world and communicable diseases still account for seven out of the top ten causes of childhood deaths.  Thirty-five percent of Africa's children are at higher risk of death today than they were 10 years ago, he noted.

 

Reports by UNICEF, UNAIDS, WHO and Doctors Without Borders clearly show that the high prices of many life-saving medicines and diagnostics are a significant barrier to their availability in the poorest areas of the world.

Leading causes of death in the developing world's children include perinatal conditions; lower respiratory infections; diarrhea diseases; malaria; measles; congenital anomalies; HIV/AIDS; pertussis; tetanus; and protein-energy malnutrition.  Only about 12 percent of HIV-positive people worldwide have daily antiretroviral drugs available to them, Leahy said.

Leahy has worked for several months with a broad coalition of foundations, humanitarian organizations, religious groups, generic drug makers and others in developing the bill.

The Vermont senator said he is hopeful about the prospects of his bill eventually becoming law.  "The fact that deadly diseases today are just a plane ride away -- and the emergence of new threats like Avian Flu - have finally convinced us that global health is also an issue of national security."

 

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 For a history and summary of the Life-Saving Medicines Export Act of 2006, click here.
For the text of the bill, click here.