Paul Martin has given his backing to the federal government's attempts to make Canadian generic drugs available to AIDS patients in poor countries, an initiative championed by United Nations envoy Stephen Lewis as a way to help Canada regain its leading role in international development.
"I think there's no doubt the recommendation . . . that these drugs must be provided to these countries as quickly as possible and as low-cost as possible is . . . something Canada should fulfill," said Mr. Martin, who is to take over as prime minister next year.
Last week, Mr. Lewis urged Canada to change its drug patent law to give parts of the world devastated by AIDS, such as sub-Saharan Africa, a cheap source of treatments. Two cabinet ministers promised the next day to do so.
"The recommendation that has been made, that Canadian drug companies be allowed to participate in this, and that the legislation be put in place, is certainly something that is worth supporting," Mr. Martin said.
Delegates to an international AIDS conference look at some anti-retroviral drugs on display in Nairobi, Kenya, last week. (Simon Maina/AFP)
Despite the technical intricacies of patent law, Industry Minister Allan Rock and Trade Minister Pierre Pettigrew were pushing bureaucrats to prepare legislation before Prime Minister Jean Chrétien prorogues the House of Commons. That will happen within weeks in preparation for his retirement in February. But now, the next administration has committed to the initiative as well.
Mr. Martin has said he wants Canada to play a leading role in international development, and Ottawa's attempt to allow cheaper generic copies of brand-name drugs into AIDS-stricken countries will accomplish that, Mr. Lewis said in an interview yesterday.
"It's kind of like reasserting the moral leadership [that] Canada had around the time of the end of apartheid," said Mr. Lewis, the UN's special envoy for AIDS in Africa.
In the mid-1980s, Canada, led by prime minister Brian Mulroney, was at the forefront of a powerful group of Commonwealth countries whose pressure helped end South Africa's apartheid regime.
"Canada had internationally a very strong moral position. . . . And I think that could be restored to Canada by doing this," Mr. Lewis said.
He spoke after returning from a trip to Africa during which he urged the world's major industrialized countries, especially Canada, to allow cheap generic drugs to flow more freely to the poor.
He urged the federal government to go even further yesterday, suggesting that Canada lobby other Group of Seven countries to join in, increase its funding to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, help developing countries win approval from the World Trade Organization to import cheap drugs, and use the Canadian International Development Agency to distribute the drugs to poor countries.
The federal ministers' pledge last week to rush through legislation to allow cheaper drugs to be produced for poor countries ravaged by AIDS took the pharmaceutical industry, the developing world and even some of their cabinet colleagues by surprise.
The legislation will need to protect the brand-name pharmaceutical industry's patents on AIDS drugs in the developed world while allowing generic production of the same drugs for export only.
Mr. Lewis said he believes the bureaucrats can find a solution quickly.
"I certainly wouldn't wish them to rush it and get it wrong. What I'm saying is that it's possible to do it quickly and get it right."
The Canadian government's willingness to take on the issue is almost - but not quite - enough to make him vote Liberal, joked Mr. Lewis, a former leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party.
"Short of voting Liberal, I'll praise them to the skies."
The Canadian effort has the international development world chattering with excitement, and the United Nations Children's Fund, which has a large drug depot in Copenhagen, sent out a congratulatory news release this week.
The Canadian initiative is "the first major move by a major industrialized country to overcome a key structural hurdle in getting life-saving medicines to people who desperately need them," said Unicef chief Carol Bellamy.
But the multinational brand-name industry has said the initiative is window-dressing at best, and will put pharmaceutical investment and research in Canada at risk by removing adequate protections for intellectual property.
Officials say they are not too concerned about public statements from the brand-name pharmaceutical sector because behind the scenes, the companies cautiously support the government's efforts to balance intellectual property with international development needs.
