Vital medicines are priced out of the reach of poor people.

This is in violation of the promises made five years ago by the World Trade Organisation to make life-saving medicines available and affordable to all. As a result, millions of poor people in developing countries are dying because they can't afford the medicines they so desperately need.

In 2005 alone, more than four million people were infected by HIV. Other serious diseases, such as cancer, once considered the “burden of the rich”, are increasingly affecting people in developing countries. Cancer rates are expected to double by 2020 with 60 per cent occurring in the developing world; while diabetes has risen from 30 million to 230 million people in the past 20 years, with most new cases now reported in poorer countries.

Profits versus people's access to vital medicines

Before 2001 rich pharmaceutical companies had the right to enforce 20 year patents on vital medicines pricing them out of reach of poor people. Then, as a result of wide-spread public outcry the World Trade Organisation (WTO) unanimously agreed to the Doha Declaration, stating that rules on patents should not prevent poor countries' ability to "protect public health, and, in particular, to promote access to medicines for all." This statement gave developing countries the explicit right to produce, export, and import affordable copies of expensive patented drugs in the interest of public health. As a result of the declaration the prices of some HIV drugs in developing countries fell dramatically.

But 5 years later, rich country governments, instead of enabling developing countries to make medicines available and affordable to all are now breaking the promises made at Doha. The United States, under the influence of the pharmaceutical industry, is forcing developing countries to accept stricter intellectual-property protection via Free Trade Agreements that violate the spirit of the Doha Declaration. The European Union is turning a blind eye to these actions by the US, actions that are having devastating effects on millions of poor people.

Pharmaceutical companies must stop abusing the rules. Rich governments must live up to their promises to make sure that medicines are for life, not for profits.