Resistance to "sneaky" amendments that could raise ARV costs

Kenyan civil society is urging parliament to reject a bill that would make it more difficult to import cheap antiretroviral (ARV) drugs. Amendments to section 58 of the 2001 Industrial Property (IP) Act would restrict commercial activity in a product to the owner of a patent or his express consent to do so, whereas current law condones "parallel importation", allowing independent distributors to import products in competition with patent holders. "Amendments to the IP Act would hinder efforts to put more people on treatment. The proposed amendments are unacceptable, mischievous and downright dangerous: they would force our government to negotiate with individual companies that may have profit as their priority," Dr John Wasonga, an HIV/AIDS treatment specialist, said at a press conference on Monday organised by the United Civil Society Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in the capital, Nairobi. Kenya suffers from the "twin epidemics" of HIV and TB, as well as widespread malaria, and the amendments would also make treating opportunistic infections more expensive. Civil society groups argued that the increased cost of first-line ARV therapy in a country where 56 percent of the population live below the poverty line threatened to roll back advances made in the past few years and hand over control to a handful of foreign pharmaceutical manufacturers. Some 70,000 Kenyans are accessing ARVs, but an estimated 200,000 are in need of them. Activists claim that the contentious amendments, which were part of a Miscellaneous Amendments Bill, were tucked away among other "palatable" ones in order to surreptitiously pass a law that could have life-altering effects on over a million HIV-positive people. A similar amendment was attempted in 2002 but was thwarted. "We have spent colossal sums of money to urge mothers to use Nevirapine to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Original Nevirapine costs 1,770 shillings [US $24], while the generic version costs 152 shillings [$2]," said Dr Ignatius Kibe, a pharmacist with the coalition. "This would have consequences for both the private and government sector. We beseech the MPs to study the impact of the proposed amendments and reject them." Monique Wanjala, who works for Women Fighting AIDS in Kenya, a local NGO, noted that expensive drugs prevented people from adhering to their medication, putting their lives at risk. "I have been on treatment for the last two-and-a-half years because of the flexibility of the 2001 IP Act. We cannot put profit before life - this will affect the overall development of our country." Director of Medical Services in the Ministry of Health, Dr James Nyikal, told PlusNews he had written to the attorney-general to express his opposition. "The amendments should not go on - they will affect all drugs and, in an emergency such as avian flu, because parallel importation would not be available, people would not have access to emergency medication." The civil society coalition has organised a march to parliament on Tuesday to present a petition to MPs. "We want to express solidarity with the Kenyan people to stop this sneaky act," Wasonga said.