OTTAWA — Prime Minister Jean Chrétien will personally introduce pioneering Canadian legislation in Parliament Thursday that will help get cheap copies of patented medicines to poor countries in Africa and elsewhere to treat AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other health crises.
It is rare that a prime minister sponsors legislation but it is being done as one of Mr. Chrétien's last moves to cement his legacy before leaving office.
The bill will be one of Mr. Chrétien's last acts in the House. It almost certainly will not pass, but will have to be reintroduced after Paul Martin becomes Prime Minister. The initiative also keeps alive speculation recently raised in news reports that Mr. Chrétien has his eye on leaving office to join the United Nations as an adviser on Africa.
The impetus for Canada's cheap-drug export plan was a World Trade Organization deal August 30 that members would not sue countries that break patents and sell cheap copies of brand-name drugs to other needy nations stricken with AIDS and other health problems.
"Canada will be the first country to introduce legislation to implement the WTO agreement," Mr. Chrétien told Parliament Tuesday. "We hope that our quick response will encourage other countries to follow our example."
International development groups will be scrutinizing the legislation to ensure it does not limit the diseases that can be tackled by Ottawa's initiative to just AIDS, TB and malaria.
Senior officials vow that the bill will not restrict diseases treated — even though it's a limitation the brand-name drug industry would like.
One official said Canada will use the same language used in a November, 2001 WTO statement that set the stage for this summer's deal on generic drug copies.
"The WTO said it should address 'public-health problems afflicting developing and least-developed countries, especially those resulting from HIV, AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other epidemics' and that's the language we are using," one senior official said.
Ottawa will set up a mechanism to vet requests for drug shipments for various diseases, and officials vow they will not be heavy handed in approvals.
AIDS groups worry that Ottawa may be erecting a system that could destroy the incentive for generic drug firms to seek out supply contracts in poor countries and ultimately keep downward pressure on patent drug prices.
Federal sources say Ottawa will require that brand-name drug makers be given first crack at filling orders instead of seeing the work go automatically to generic pharmaceutical makers. This requirement may turn up in regulations that follow the bill weeks and months later.
"We really have to question whether this kind of provision could ultimately defeat the purpose that is supposedly behind the legislation," said Richard Elliot, director of legal policy for the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network.
"If you are a generic company and you negotiated a certain price and you come back to Canada and seek permission to make the product, but every time the brand-name company that holds the patent gets to step in and meet the terms of the contract, then sooner or later...you're not going to bother."
The new bill appears to have little chance of being passed into law before Mr. Chrétien leaves office.
Parliament rises for a one-week break next week and expectations remain that the Liberals will prorogue, or terminate the current session soon after. It will be up to Mr. Martin as the next Prime Minister to carry it forward; the former finance minister has already backed the idea.
The Liberals hold out hope they might be able to obtain unanimous consent from all parties to give the bill speedy passage through the House, but the Canadian Alliance is suggesting that might not happen before week's end.
With a report from Kim Lunman
