MEDIA ADVISORY
For immediate release
April 17, 2007
(Toronto, Ontario) - On April 18, 2007, Sarah Perkins, Acting Director of the International Human Rights Program (IHRP) at the U of T Faculty of Law, with research assistance from U of T law students, will appear before the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology to present recommendations from their report: "Making Canada's Access to Medicines Regime Work for Countries in Need: A Case Study in Ghana." The report is the culmination of two years of student research in Ghana on access and distribution of medications. Click here to read the full report.
Earlier this year, students of the U of T Faculty of Law's IHRP Access to Drugs Initiative, submitted their report to Industry Canada and Health Canada, and were then invited to appear before the Standing Committee to contribute to the review of the effectiveness of Canada's Access to Medicines Regime.
The students began working in Ghana in 2005. They have now expanded their work to include other countries in West Africa, and have recently received a grant from the Canadian International Development Agency to look at regional cooperation in the procurement and distribution of medicine.
"U of T law students in the Access to Drugs Initiative are deeply committed to international human rights and to working with African states to help them to develop and to improve the access and distribution of vitally needed medications," says Perkins, who will travel to Ghana on April 23, 2007 to further advance the initiative.
Industry Canada and Health Canada received submissions from various interested entities in response to a consultation paper released by the government on November 24, 2006, as part of an early statutory review of Canada's Access to Medicines Regime.
Who: U of T Faculty of Law Access to Drugs Initiative
What: Industry Canada Standing Committee Hearing on Access to Drugs in Africa
When: Wednesday, April 18, 2007; 4:30 pm - 6:30 pm
Where: Parliament Building, West Block, Room 308, Ottawa
-30-
For more information, please contact:
Jane Kidner, Assistant Dean, External Relations, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto
(416) 978-6702 or j.kidner@utoronto.ca
Background Information
In August 2003, negotiations among World Trade Organization (WTO) members resulted in a landmark decision to waive two licensing provisions of the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights that appeared to prevent the export of generic drugs and medical devices to developing countries faced with public health problems. The August 2003 decision allows WTO member countries with pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity to issue licences for the manufacture and export of generic versions of patented drugs and medical devices to developing countries without the capacity to manufacture the products themselves. Although all WTO member countries are eligible to import under the 2003 decision, 23 developed countries have voluntarily announced that they will not use the system to import, while a number of others have announced separately that they would only use the system for emergencies or situations of extreme urgency.
In May 2004, Canada was the first country in the world to implement the WTO General Council's August 30th decision which allows for the compulsory licensing of essential medicines for export to countries in need. Despite the prompt enactment of the legislation, no country has, as of yet, indicated any intention of trying to use Canada's Access to Medicines Regime (CAMR). It has become increasingly obvious that if any medication is to be exported through the CAMR system, there has to be major revision to its provisions.
