The stakeholders concerned were hopeful that there would be an extension of drug patent exemption for least developed countries (LDCs). But the duration of the extension -- 17 years -- and the possibility of a further extension must have come as a surprise to them.
Thus, LDCs need not provide for, nor enforce patents and data protection with respect to pharmaceutical products until January1, 2033.
The news about extension that was decided at the TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) Council meeting on November 6 last was greeted by the LDCs. But Bangladesh, which played an important role as the LDC coordinator with regard to TRIPs issues, is happier than any of the other LDC member for it has far greater stake in pharmaceutical production and trade.
Among the LDCs, Bangladesh is a leader in pharmaceutical production and it exports medicines to a number of countries, including a few developed ones.
As the news about the TRIPS exemption extension broke, pharmaceutical industry leaders here sounded extremely happy. However, while talking to the media, they highlighted the benefits the poor people would get from the extension of the exemption, not the benefits they would accrue from the concession. "The poor would continue to get medicines at low prices for another 17 years" was their unanimous view.
Undeniably, the withdrawal of the drug patent exemption in the absence of the required level of domestic capacity to produce pharmaceutical ingredients at low cost and the buying of patent rights of generic drugs would have taken the prices of medicines beyond the reach of the poor and low income people.
But are the poor in Bangladesh really getting medicines at prices in commensurate with the drug patent exemptions?
The leading pharmaceutical companies have been hiking intermittently the prices of their products barring the essential ones in the absence of any government control. The prices of essential drugs have also been revised upward on a number of occasions. But the increase, because of the government intervention, has been at a tolerable level.
Over the last two to three years, the prices of most drugs have gone up by 50 to 60 per cent. The poor people can hardly afford medicines produced by leading manufacturers. They are being forced to buy low-cost substandard drugs with questionable effectiveness.
The extension of the exemption from TRIPS, in fact, has brought to the fore a couple of very pertinent questions. They are: (a) Are the drug manufacturers passing on the due benefits, in value terms, of such exemptions to the poor? (b) What is the level of progress in building domestic capacity to face the challenges of post-exemption period?
The Bangladesh pharmaceutical industry, which is worth $12 billion, has been expanding fast and local manufacturers are now meeting more than 90 per cent of the domestic medicinal need. The Drug Policy of 1982 has played a key role, no doubt. The patent rights exemption too has contributed to its growth.
However, the truth is that the benefits of patent exemption have not been adequately passed on to the poor. Rather the facility has helped the industry owners, particularly the big ones, to get richer.
In fact, Bangladesh would have been in serious trouble had the TRIPS Council decided to withdraw the exemption for LDCs as scheduled for the domestic pharmaceutical industry could not make much headway during the last decade.
True, the industry has expanded and Bangladesh medicines are being exported to a good number of countries. But the growth has been based on medicines the patent rights of which belong to alien companies. What the local drug manufacturers do is that they copy the patent rights of generic medicines of others to produce and market the same.
Moreover, Bangladesh would find itself out of the list of exemption beneficiaries in 2017 when it aspires to become a middle-income country (MIC). So, the local drug manufacturers might find them in a soup if that happens.
Unfortunately, the pharmaceutical industry could not make much headway so far as developing a sound raw material manufacturing base is concerned. In fact both industry owners and policymakers have not been serious enough to face the post-TRIPS exemption challenges. Had they been so, there would have been sufficient investment to build their own generic drug manufacturing facilities.
However, there has not been any shortage of energy and enthusiasm when industry people talk about their achievements. None would dare nullify achievements. But there are failures also. Those are hardly referred to. The Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) Park is glaring example. The Park is yet to see the light of the day though the site for its establishment was selected back in 2008.
Any industry in a free market economy is supposed to operate freely under the overall guidance of the government. The pharmaceutical industry is not an industry of lesser importance since it is very much linked to the physical wellbeing of the population. The government is not in a position to spend enough on health because of the paucity of resources. So, the people, rich or poor, are required to spend sufficient amounts from their own pockets to meet their medical needs.
The government, thus, has an obligation to see that such spending on the part of poor and low income people on healthcare remains at an affordable level. In doing so, it should rein in the high profit motive of the drug manufacturers. Under the circumstances, there has to be certain price control mechanism for commonly used medicines, not just for so-called essential drugs.
The prevailing situation calls for putting in place a new drug policy that would take into cognizance the overall situation, both at home and abroad, in drug manufacturing and marketing and the poor people's capacity to spend on healthcare.
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