[Access to essential drugs in developing countries]

Every year infectious diseases kill about 13 million people, about 30.000 deaths a day. Almost half of the victims are children younger than 5 years old, most of them belong to developing countries. Most of the premature deaths and the incapacity cases associated to infectious diseases could be avoided if the poor had access to medicines. In the developing world, the poverty of the families, the inappropried public expense and the lack of sanitary infrastructures get together to leave out of the reach of the poor the possibility of an adequate medical treatment. According to World Health Organization (WHO) in the developing countries about 2,000 million people lack access to essential medicines. The new patent rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) will reduce even more access to essential medicines to the poor. Granting trade exclusivity rights to the owners of the patents for a period of at least 20 years limits the right of the governments to allow production, trade and importation of low cost copies (generics) of patented drugs. It is not a theoretical or far away menace. The application of these more strict rules has all ready caused serious problems to developing countries producers of generics as India or Brazil or to importers of these as South Africa or Kenya. They have been press, taken to court and threaten of sanctions by the pharmaceutical industry and some developed countries governments. The decision of some developing countries to fight for their most needed people's health added to the international campaign for the access to essential medicines defended by some non governmental organizations like Act Up, Treatment Action Campaign, Doctors Without Borders and Intermon Oxfam have implied small victories on behalf of the poor countries access to medicines. But deeper changes in the patent rules and the investigation of the diseases of the developing world are needed to improve health in the developing countries.