ACTA ‘could affect’ vulnerable people’s access to affordable medication

Fair trade organization Koperattiva Kummerc Gust (KKG) has expressed its concerns on how the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) could potentially affect the access of vulnerable people to low-cost generic medicines.

This morning in Valletta, a demonstration against ACTA is being held. This multi-national trade agreement focuses on intellectual property enforcement, and has been widely criticized for its lack of transparency, the danger it poses to Internet freedom, its ambiguous wording, and for being a potential threat to the trade in generic medicines.

KKG said it opposed to measures that could threaten the supply of medication to vulnerable people, and was supporting the protest.

"ACTA will undoubtedly impact access to affordable medicines in the EU and other signatories by curbing generic competition," KKG said, quoting from Oxfam, international confederation of 15 organisations working in more than 90 countries worldwide to find lasting solutions to poverty and related injustice around the world.

KKG said that the Oxfam report voices concern over the impact of ACTA, which may extend beyond the states that have signed the agreement, resulting in the undermining of access to affordable generic drugs for millions of people in developing countries.

"Among the reasons cited is that, under ACTA, generic medicines might be in danger of being treated as counterfeits, and as such removed from circulation," the co-operative said.

KKG added that lack of access to affordable medication in the Global South is one of the greatest challenges of our day.

"Millions of people do not have access to medication for conditions such as HIV, malaria and tuberculosis because of the high prices demanded by pharmaceutical giants," it said.

According to the Stop Aids Campaign, ten million people - including tens of thousands of children - cannot access life-saving treatment for HIV, largely due to the high cost of drugs.

"Generic medicines provide a way of supplying life-saving pharmaceuticals to the most vulnerable people at an affordable cost: according to Oxfam, competition among generics producers resulted in a decline in price of first-line HIV treatment from $15,000 to $67 per patient per year between 2000 and 2010," KKG said.