Global IssuesHEALTH: 'I Have Never Opposed Generics' - British Ex-Politician
Baroness Lynda Chalker, a former British government minister, has been at the forefront of the intellectual property rights crusade to pass laws against counterfeits in east Africa. These laws threaten the use of life-saving generics in countries that depend on such medicines for some 90 percent of their healthcare needs.
The campaign has seen the Anti-Counterfeit Act of 2008 being adopted in Kenya while the Counterfeit Goods Bill is currently under consideration in Uganda.
Trade ministers of the East African Community (EAC) will consider an anti-counterfeit policy and law at regional level before the end of June, which has implications for Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda, the other three member states of the EAC. The campaign has made further inroads as Malawi, Zambia and Ghana are considering similar laws.
Chalker has pushed for the adoption of these laws in her capacity as chairperson of Africa Matters Limited (AML), an advisory consultancy to companies operating in developing countries.
She also serves as trustee of the Investment Climate Facility, an organisation promoting the IPRs agenda in Africa, supported by various multinational companies, Western governments and the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation.
Chalker previously served in Britain’s Conservative Party cabinet between 1986 and 1997 as minister responsible for the foreign and Commonwealth office and for overseas development.
As AML chairperson Chalker met senior members of the EAC in April 2007, including EAC secretary general Juma Mwapachu and counsel to the EAC Wilbert Kaahwa.
At the meeting, Mwapachu and Chalker agreed that urgent and concerted efforts were necessary to combat the illegal trade in counterfeits and ensure the harmonisation of laws in all five EAC states.
In October 2007 Chalker addressed a conference on intellectual property rights (IPRs) in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, where she highlighted the need for strict IPRs enforcement through police and customs authorities.
Chalker has since 2007 been attending Uganda’s presidential investors roundtable. Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has become a vocal supporter of legislating against counterfeits.
In February 2008 Chalker chaired a session at the fourth global congress on combating counterfeits and piracy in Dubai where she listed the advancements made in east Africa in the 'global war against counterfeiting' and praised the work of the Kenya Association of Manufacturers, a key mover behind Kenya’s anti-counterfeit law.
The congress is part of the global IPRs campaign. Chalker said in her address at the session that, 'in terms of countries’ economies and individuals’ lives, (counterfeiting) is unpleasant.
'In the case of medicines ... it is downright dangerous. Aside from the personal suffering there is the economic reality of the extra burden counterfeiting places on health services in developing countries,' she added.
Chalker addressed the first east African investment conference in Kigali, Rwanda, in June 2008, which was attended by Rwandan President Paul Kagame and ministers from the EAC. There she stated that IPRs protection 'is a cornerstone of establishing a more conducive investment climate'.
In February 2009, Chalker through AML organised a conference for Ugandan ministers and government technocrats on the strategies to fight counterfeits. Museveni, who opened the conference, said that Uganda should follow the Chinese example of hanging counterfeiters.
At the meeting Chalker, who is also chairperson of the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), asserted that 'more than half the anti-malaria medicines in Africa are counterfeit'.
At an ICF summit in May this year, Chalker said the recent Constitutional Court ruling suspending those sections of Kenya’s Anti-Counterfeit Act applicable to generic medicines was a drawback to anti-counterfeiting efforts.
'This is an eye-opener to the drafters of anti-counterfeiting legislation that consultation and deeper research must be done when drafting laws,' was her admonition. 'The court in its wisdom has found that the sections of the act being challenged may be inconsistent with international and national protocols and laws.'
In an interview with IPS, Chalker emphasised that, 'I have never spoken and will never speak against generic medicines that meet the required standards'. Having engaged with the lawyers drafting the EAC legislation, she is furthermore confident that the wording of the EAC legislation will not confuse generic and counterfeit drugs.
But in her responses to IPS’s questions she conflated the issues of safety standards for medication with IPRs, a manoeuvre that has become the stock-in-trade of those driving the international IPRs campaign.
Her stance is that, 'an anti-counterfeit law is essential in Uganda and east Africa as a whole; one only has to look at the number of deaths arising from counterfeit pharmaceutical products, electronic goods and auto spare parts. This is an evil which is killing innocent people and legislation to prevent it is essential'.
When asked to explain her stance in the light of health rights advocates’ warning that the laws are contrary to the flexibilities allowed to least developed countries in the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights agreement and that they will block access to generics, Chalker emphasised that laws need to be 'well-drafted'.
The laws’ aim needs to be stated clearly as preventing people 'from being harmed by counterfeit medicines, which are medicines which contain a minimal amount of the required active ingredient, no active ingredient or which can be actually poisonous. The aim is not to prevent the production and use of good generic medicines,' she said.
In the interview, Chalker stressed the issue of the 'highest quality and safety standards' and that 'governments must give adequate resources to customs and police who are in the frontline of the battle' to enforce IPRs. Trademark owners should assist authorities, she added.
Moses Mulumba, legal advisor to the Coalition for Health Promotion and Social Development of Uganda (HEPS Uganda), told IPS that registering a trademark does not necessarily mean that such registered goods will meet the appropriate quality standards.
Promoting the use of police and customs to enforce 'standards' rings alarm bells as it suggest that an IPRs agenda is being enforced rather than an agenda that is about access to safe medicines, said Mulumba. Drug regulatory agencies are better placed to distinguish between generic and counterfeits medicines. *Additional reporting by Christi van der Westhuizen
© Inter Press Service (2010) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service