Brussels, 26/01/2015 (Agence Europe) - Moroccan civil society is rallying against the agreement on generic medicines reached in mid-January between the European Patents Office (EPO) and its Moroccan counterpart, the Moroccan industrial and commercial property office (OMPIC). The associations that have rallied criticise the effects on the health sector and are calling for the agreement to be “frozen”.
From 1 March, the agreement will extend to Morocco the legal effects of patents issued in Europe. The protesting associations, including those fighting AIDS (ALCS, ITPC-MENA and the Moroccan group for the right to health - CMDS), fear the effects of the agreement on the national medicines market and, in particular, on the generic medicines market. They “criticise” an agreement which reportedly aims “above all to strengthen the monopolies of multinationals on the medicines market in Morocco and to block the use of generic medicines, which will have enormous consequences on the right to health and access to medicines”.
In a press release, the head of ALCS, Hakima Himmich, recognises that Morocco and Europe have “differing interests as regards protecting intellectual property”. Europeans have an “interest in protecting their industry to the maximum”, Himmich states. Morocco, which is instead “a consumer of innovation” should not align itself with Europe but with “countries like Brazil, India or Egypt which apply the protection required by the World Trade Organisation [WTO] while protecting the public interest, especially access to health and medicines”. Himmich also challenges the EPO's “leniency”: “In Europe, multinationals regularly use patenting for medicines that are the result of minor modifications, which are not really an invention and are not considered patentable according to the WTO's standards”.
The three associations - ITPC-MENA, ALCS and CMDS - are calling for the agreement to be blocked and for the “creation, following the example of other developing countries, of a national multi-sectoral committee” to “work on a real national policy with regard to intellectual property, which takes account of international obligations on protection and also the level of the country's development and the social stakes linked to it, including access to medicines and health”. The associations also call for “south-south cooperation to be strengthened with the patent offices of countries with the same interests as ours, rather than favouring losing partnerships with industrialised countries”.
Morocco's trade minister, Moulay Hafid El Alamy, has rejected the associations' argument. “The conformity of the national system of intellectual property with international standards contributes to the improvement of Morocco's attractiveness for investment”, he told local press.
This matter will also have an impact on the negotiations for the deep and comprehensive free trade agreement (DCFTA) - negotiations that include harmonising laws and procedures, says Othman Mellouk, who is a specialist on the issue. He gives the example of an imbalanced trade policy. “As always”, given the “balance of power”, concessions go “in one direction and not in the other”. (FB)