Erring Errand Boys from Brussels

The WHO meeting discussing access to medicines in developing countries ended last week with the clarion but misplaced call for develpoed countries and their pharmaceutical companies to do more; to literally give drugs free or face compulsory breaking of their patents.

I turdend down an invitation from a Patient Group to speak at the WHO conference in Geneva to be part of another meeting in Ghana ostensibly to forestall its truncated outcome, as it was premised on the WHO-IGWG talk shop in Geneva. My decision was worth it. I listened to some very imposing and erring errand boys from Brussels (callingthemselves consultants) who had been asked to "Raise Awareness of TRIPSand Public Health Concerns.....in the light of a demand for compulsorylicences".

These two bulleys did not want to acknowledge the fact that for us inAfrica, patents were just one part of the problem, if at all, as medicinesfor diseases of the poor are virtually off patent.

They woke up from their slumber (hopefully) when a Ghanaian pharmaceutical manufaturer presented a litany of reasons why he thinks the Ghanaian government was his real enemy, and not patented medicines. And Oh, when I gave all particpants a peak into the Wall Street Journal article, the two Brussel boys looked visibly angry.