Drug Companies Still Work To Restrict Generic Drug Access in Poor Nations, Columnist Writes

The pharmaceutical industry, which has "recently has made a show of pulling back" from previous attempts to restrict distribution of patented AIDS drugs in poor countries, has not "shed its claws entirely," Sebastian Mallaby writes in his Washington Post column. Mallaby writes that the industry "still badmouths the generic competitors that are leading prices down, ... still clings to the fiction that patent rules make sense for poor countries ... [and] still talks as though bad infrastructure were the only obstacle to distributing AIDS drugs." Mallaby states that based on the drug industry's actions, it is "hard to be confident about the promise, announced at last year's World Trade Organization summit, that poor countries' obligations to respect patents will be relaxed" (Mallaby, Washington Post, 10/9).