World Trade Organization rules permit semicolonial countries to ignore foreign patents and produce cheaper generic copies of more expensive brand-name drugs in times of health crises. But these rules don’t prohibit countries from signing away these rights in separate trade deals. “Making certain countries drop these measures in the framework of bilateral trade negotiations would be tantamount to blackmail,” said Chirac.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick shot back that Paris should “quit trying to undermine the rest of the world economy with agricultural exports and to divert attention with issues like this.” He also charged the French government with promoting “national champion” policies that favor the pharmaceutical industry in that country, the London Financial Times reported.

Randall Tobias, who heads the Bush administration’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, along with chief executives of U.S. drug companies, were the center of several protests during the conference. Tobias is a former chief executive of the pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly.

In his Jan. 28, 2003, State of the Union speech, U.S. president George Bush announced that Washington would provide $15 billion over five years to fight AIDS.

Bush’s so-called “Emergency Plan” provides funds for a select group of countries, primarily in Africa. But some countries with the highest rates of AIDS infection, such as Zimbabwe, won’t receive a dime from the plan. Zimbabwe is on the White House list of failed states and U.S. officials have demanded that the country’s president, Robert Mugabe, step down.

According to a UN Development Program report released at the conference, a quarter of Zimbabwe’s population of 12.5 million has the AIDS virus. Life expectancy in the country has plunged from 56.6 years in 1990 to 33.9 years in 2002. In seven sub-Saharan African countries AIDS has driven life expectancy down below 40 years since 1990, the report said. The World Health Organization estimates 38 million people are infected with AIDS worldwide. Of those 25 million live in Africa.

Washington also came under fire at the conference for its emphasis on abstinence and marital fidelity in AIDS prevention. Tobias rejoined that criticism of the administration’s policy, also known as ABC—abstinence, be faithful, and use condoms—was based on the “misconception” that it stressed only one approach.

Washington bars governments and health organizations that receive its funding from using that money to purchase cheaper generic brands of drugs for AIDS treatment that have not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (USDA). The UN Global Fund purchases generic drugs that go through a pre-qualification process that is run by the World Health Organization and is similar to USDA approval.

The giant pharmaceutical companies have argued that generic drugs, which usually employ a fixed dosage into one pill taken twice a day, are ineffective in treating specific needs of individual patients. But a two-year study by Doctors Without Borders on the use of such generic drugs showed them to be as effective and safe as brand-name drugs. According to a spokesperson for the doctor’s group, brand-name equivalents of the generic drugs cost almost $600 per person annually. The generic brands cost about $200.

While the overwhelming majority of AIDS infections occur in Africa, a new study by the UN AIDS agency showed that one out of every four new infections with the virus occurs in Asia. It also showed that the virus is growing at its fastest rate in Eastern Europe, largely driven by the use of contaminated hypodermic needles by intravenous drug users. In Central Asia and Eastern Europe there are now 1.3 million people infected with the AIDS virus, as compared to 160,000 in 1995.  
 
 
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