The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #63276

Meiling Wang, PhD, MPH, Social Sciences, USIP, 524 south 45th Street, philadelphia, PA 19104, 215-895-1155, meilingwang49@hotmail.com

Issue: After the DOHA declaration on November 14, 2001 by World Trade Organization, many legal and technical problems remain in facilitating developing countries’ access to affordable HIV treatment. This project analyzes in-depth how current WTO rules, the context of international political economy, and pharmaceutical economics present operational difficulty for developing countries to obtain affordable HIV medication, specifically the anti-retrovirals.

Method: This project applies an in-depth policy analysis of WTO rules and a case study of the positions of India and China in HIV epidemic in such a framework.

Results and Lessons Learned: 1. The interpretation of WTO rules in “patent rights” and “health care provision” and “public health crisis” remains unclear and is subject to controversial application. 2. The HIV pandemic in Africa is by no means solved after DOHA declaration. In addition, The magnitude of HIV epidemic in East Asia and South Asia is in the process of exceeding that in Africa. 3. India, China, and other “ignored countries,” in Africa still cannot provide affordable medication for the HIV infected due to the intricate interplay of WTO rules, pharmaceutical economics, and international political economy. 4. The “loopholes” in current WTO rules presents difficulty for countries with emerging HIV epidemics to negotiate their positions with the donor nations and major pharmaceutical companies. 5. The international public health community needs to invoke the “universality,” “equality,” “fairness,” and “efficiency” principles in enforcing the “health care rights” of the HIV infected in developing countries in the current WTO framework.

Learning Objectives:

Globalization as brought about by the omnipresence of the WTO rules has aroused more concerns among international public health professionals even after the DOHA Declaration. This project informs the audience about:
• how the WTO rules and related TRIPS provisions (Article 7, Article 27.1, Article 8, Article 6, Article 31, and Article 66.2 and related ideas of “compulsory licensing” and “parallel imports”) affect pharmaceutical access to health services for all nations in general.
• that there still remains unresolved issues related to pharmaceutical access to affordable HIV medication for developing nations after the DOHA declaration, and
• how the public health community can facilitate individual nations to exercise their “sovereign rights” and “human rights” in the current WTO framework.

Keywords: Policy/Policy Development, International Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.