AHF Backs Sen. Sanders’ Call on US & World Trade Organization to Back Waiver of Drug Patents in Poor Countries

In Advocacy, Global, News by AHF

As World Trade Organization meets in Geneva this week, AHF lauds Senator Bernie Sanders for letter to U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman to “…request the administration endorse an indefinite waiver of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) obligations to grant and enforce pharmaceutical patents for countries classified by the UN as LDCs (Least Developed Countries).”

WASHINGTON (October 15, 2015) AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) applauded Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and endorsed his recent call on the United States to support an indefinite waiver of drug patents in least developed countries (LDC). In anticipation of World Trade Organization (WTO) meetings in Geneva this week to update WTO standards on granting and enforcing drug patents, Senator Sanders wrote a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman requesting that “…the administration endorse an indefinite waiver of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) obligations to grant and enforce pharmaceutical patents for countries classified by the UN as LDCs.”

In his September 28th letter to Froman, Sanders noted “Based on conversations between my staff and the staff of the United States Trade Representative, I understand the administration does not support a permanent exception for drug patents for these poor countries.” He later added “Making sure people in poor countries have access to life-saving medicine is our moral responsibility.”

 According to Sanders, “…these impoverished countries submitted a request to the WTO (in February) for a permanent extension of the exception of the obligation to grant drug patents, for as long as a country is classified as an LCD by the UN. The WTO rules require such requests to be granted when they are ‘duly motivated.’ This is a reasonable standard. It means that poor countries will be able to afford medicine to keep their people alive.”

“We once again thank Senator Sanders for his compassion and common sense leadership on drug pricing and policies and urge the U.S. Trade Representative to back—and the WTO to grant—the requested drug patent exemptions for these countries in order that they may afford lifesaving medicines they need,” said AHF President Michael Weinstein. “As Senator Sanders simply stated in closing his ­letter: ‘Too many lives are at stake’.”

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