US 'blackmailing' countries over Aids drugs

France accused the United States of “blackmail” tactics to pressure poor countries into giving up rights to make cheap HIV drugs, as the Aids Conference issued a stirring call to get more medicine to millions of needy in the developing world.

“A vicious terrorist is out there. It is not Osama bin Laden, it is Aids,” Hollywood actor Richard Gere told conference delegates in Bangkok. “The biggest threat to our livelihood, our happiness is Aids.”

Some six million people in poor countries need anti-retroviral treatment, but only 5% of them are getting it, according to the World Health Organisation.

“All of us with the power and responsibility to make a difference, can only hang our heads in shame,” said Jim Kim, WHO’s Aids director. “We know what we need to do. We know prevention and treatment must be accelerated together.”

French officials accused the United States of pressuring poor countries to relinquish rights to make the generic drugs in return for free-trade agreements. In a written statement to the conference, President Jacques Chirac called that tactic “tantamount to blackmail”.

France’s global ambassador on Aids, Mireille Guigaz, said: “The United States wants to put pressure on developing countries who try to stand up for their own industries. This is a problem.”

World Trade Organisation rules give developing countries the flexibility to ignore foreign patents and produce copies of expensive drugs in times of health crises. All WTO members including the United States have signed an agreement to respect that clause.

But there is nothing to prevent a country from imposing patent restrictions in a bilateral trade agreement, such as the one Washington is negotiating with Thailand.

Chirac also called on rich nations to raise donations to the two and a half-year-old UN Global Fund – aimed primarily at fighting Aids – by £2bn (€3bn) per year.

Since the last Aids conference in Barcelona in 2002 generated optimism about the availability of new anti-retroviral drugs, six million people have died of Aids and 10 million people have become newly infected.

The number of people on treatment has doubled in the developing world to 440,000. UN officials hope to treat three million people by 2005.

Cost of the drugs is a key issue. European and US pharmaceutical giants make most of them, protected by patents and costing as much as €4,500 per person per year.

Some developing countries such as Thailand, India and Brazil are making cheap generic drugs but not enough to reach everybody. Some 38 million people are infected with HIV, mostly in poor countries: 25 million in sub-Saharan Africa and 7.2 million in Asia.