Health care trip-up

Well into its second year of being debated at the people's assembly the draft intellectual property rights law is still a hot potato. Niveen Wahish reports
The controversy over the effect of the agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), is far from over in Egypt -- particularly in the area of pharmaceuticals. Last week's conference on pharmaceuticals and intellectual property rights organised by the World International Property Organisation (WIPO) and the Egyptian government shed light on just how hot the issue is.
The conference, which brought together health officials, representatives of pharmaceutical companies and TRIPS experts, centred around Egypt's draft law on intellectual property rights and its need to conform with TRIPS requirements while simultaneously protecting local interests.
The draft bill -- tabled in parliament towards the end of the 2001 parliamentary session -- is still being hotly debated inside and outside parliamentary circles. Hossam Badrawi, head of parliament's education committee, which reviewed the draft law before it went to the full house, is one of the few officials optimistic about the outcome. Badrawi is firm in his stance that the law will be ready by the end of the current parliamentary session. Until then, however, the debate goes on.
The process of reaching a final document is not quite as simple as those involved would hope. Hamdi El-Sayed, head of the Egyptian Doctors' Syndicate, pointed to the Egyptian constitution and its stipulation that every individual had the right to medical treatment and medication.
"This must not be overlooked," he said. "What is the effect of the application of TRIPS on the ability of the individual to acquire and afford medicine easily?"
That, El-Sayed says, is a sensitive issue.
Although 1999 studies showed that the price of pharmaceuticals would increase by six per cent, and that 92 per cent of pharmaceuticals in Egypt would have exceeded the period during which their property rights must not be violated, several speakers pointed out that these figures were no longer valid.
A recent study on the status of the pharmaceuticals during the next three years predicts that national expenditure on pharmaceuticals will inflate to LE11 billion. The study, by Moustafa Al-Hadary, president of the Centre for Planning and Pharmaceutical Policy at the Ministry of Health, also forecast an average 100 per cent increase in pharmaceutical prices.
Tharwat Basili, president of the Chamber of Pharmaceutical Industries, emphasised that the effect of TRIPS would only be apparent once it went into force in Egypt in 2005.
"And as more time passes," he said, "the effect of the agreement will become more evident."
Pointing out that only 30 per cent of the Egyptian population currently receives decent medical treatment, Basili said the future with TRIPS was bleak.
"Once the TRIPS agreement is in full force," he said, "that figure is expected to decrease."
Stressing that he is not against innovatism or that companies enjoy the economic returns on their investments, Basili said that countries should only bear their share of the cost of research and development (R&D). International consumption of pharmaceuticals, he explained, fell mainly within the US, Japan, and Europe: 68 per cent, to be exact. Given that Egypt's consumption falls at just 0.1 per cent of global consumption, "it is illogical to burden all countries with the cost of producing a medicine," he argues. "The amount of R&D borne by a country should be relative to the country's consumption of total global consumption."
While the accuracy of these calculations remains to be proven, Sherif Saadallah, director of Cooperation for Development Bureau (CDB) for Arab countries of WIPO, says, "There is no going back. We have committed to the agreement and our law must conform to it."
As Minister of Health Ismail Sallam told conference participants, "We signed an agreement and we're going to respect it."
He was not the only one. Badrawi looked at the potentially crippling situation from a more pro-active angle.
"No matter how much longer we delay the application of the agreement," he said, "we must deal with it sooner or later. Rather than concentrate our efforts on rejecting the agreement, we should concentrate on facing the challenges."
This is an attitude commendable for its intended initiative. The implication, of course, reflects a vast task to tackle: the coming of TRIPS means one thing -- that the nation needs to take the time and effort and money somehow to overhaul the national health care system.
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