Brussels, 21/03/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament debate, last week in Strasbourg, and the confirmation by Commissioner Pascal Lamy of the position held by the Community executive in favour of the use by the most poor countries of the system of obligatory licences for the local manufacturing of anti-viral drugs seems to have contributed towards causing a reaction from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The two organisations have announced their intention to gather together, from 8 to 11 April in Hosbjor near Oslo, around fifty experts from northern and southern countries, in order to study ways of improving access for the most poor countries to vital medicines and the measures that can be taken to prevent the return to the rich countries of medicine sold at lower prices in the most poor.
On 15 March, during the celebration of he 3rd European Consumer Day, the Director of the European Consumers Organisation (BEUC), Jim Murray also qualified as "morally repugnant" the industrial policies of the pharmaceutical companies. He virulently denounced the attitude of the 42 European and American companies that challenge the right of South Africa to locally produce medicines for people affected by AIDS. The same day, the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) asserted supporting the access of the most poor to treatments against AIDS, but called on the EU to take measures to prevent cheap medicines returning to Europe, the United States and Japan.