Urgent action needed: Help Canada fix legislation to export generic drugs

Time is of the essence: on Tuesday, October 26, the Canadian government committee responsible for reviewing the proposed reforms to Canada's Access to Medicines Regime will hear from expert witnesses, including Rachel Kiddel-Monroe, President of the UAEM Board of Directors. But we want the Canadian government to hear from you, too! Whether you're Canadian or not!

UAEM has done a lot of work with the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network on this issue, and we are now so close to finally achieving our goal of making this well-intentioned but fatally flawed legislation actually work for the benefit of the world's poor. But we can't do it without your help. Please, write to the Prime Minister's Office, and to David Sweet, head of the committee, to let them know you support the reforms proposed in Bill C-393.

Background:

According to the World Health Organization, one in three people around the world do not have regular access to medicine or no access at all. With the health of over two billion people threatened, the World Trade Organization in 2003 amended international law and introduced mechanisms allowing countries to export essential medicines.

Canada's Access to Medicines Regime (CAMR) was introduced in 2004 as part of the Government of Canada’s broader development strategy. Passed unanimously by all political parties, the goal of CAMR was simple: to enabling Canadian pharmaceutical manufacturers to get affordable, generic medicines to people in the developing world.

However, in each of the five years since the passing of the bill, over four million people have become newly infected with HIV/AIDS, three million have died while two modest shipments have gone out to Rwanda under only one license. Both the generic company as well as the importing country involved have publicly stated that in its present iteration, CAMR is too complex and would not be used again.

Bill C-393 is a proposed amendment to simplify CAMR that seeks to remove a number of legal, administrative and economic barriers to better enable use of internationally legal flexibilities. These reforms would not change the fundamentals of the CAMR legislation but rather simplify the cumbersome, long and expensive process in three ways: by removing the disincentives for generic manufacturers to use CAMR, by increasing flexibility in the terms of compulsory licensing and by streamlining the process for issuing a compulsory license.

Bill C-393 has recently passed its second reading in the Canadian House of Commons and is currently before the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology. Over the past year, more than 10,000 Canadians have written letters, signed postcards, and urged their Members of Parliament to support CAMR reform. It was this overwhelming public response that got Bill C-393 this far and we now need YOUR continued support to make sure it passes, revitalizing Canada's commitment to ensuring global access to essential medicines.

Learn lots more at the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network web site.